Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

This morning, when Cassandra and Rapunzel climbed out onto the roof of the caravan, they finally saw the destination of their year-long journey.

The view in front of them was both ominous and breathtaking. The infamous Dark Kingdom really lived up to its name - it seemed to be constructed entirely from the black rocks, including the enormous castle looming in the distance. Cassandra never thought that the sight of a bunch of these dreaded stones could be so mesmerizing.

The rest of the team seemed to share her amazement. They all quietly exited the caravan to come closer to the edge of the cliff and admire the view below.

“We made it,” Rapunzel was the one to finally break the silence, her voice full of awe. “The Dark Kingdom.”

“Yep! We just need a way to get the old camper down there,” Eugene said with a smile, somewhat breaking the immersion.

Of course, it was the exact moment when their camper decided to roll out the other side of the cliff and fall to its doom. Cass inwardly rolled her eyes. At this point, she wasn’t even surprised by this kind of thing anymore.

They all ran after the caravan, as if it could somehow stop its fall, but before they could reach it, it was already lying at the bottom, shattered to pieces.

“No! Not again!” Eugene lamented.

Cassandra barely noticed some silly little banter between Lance and Shorty. Her attention focused on Rapunzel, who was now glancing in the direction of the Dark Kingdom, looking uncharacteristically hesitant, maybe even concerned.

“Your destiny awaits, Princess,” Cassandra said quietly, staying by her friend’s side.

She didn't believe in destiny, not really, but she knew that Rapunzel very much did. This perceived destiny was the thing that motivated the Princess throughout the entirety of their journey. If it mattered so much to her, Cassandra was going to support her in her search for it, no matter what.

“Are you sure you’re ready for this?” Eugene asked gently, joining them.

“I just wish I knew what this is,” Rapunzel confessed, distressed. “I mean, Demanitus said if I don't grab the Moonstone the black rocks will destroy everything, but I have no idea what to expect to happen to me when I do.”

Cassandra thought about this for the past few weeks, too. She already could see Rapunzel holding the magic of both the Sundrop and the Moonstone in her hands, possessing their presumably limitless power. She could understand why Rapunzel was afraid to hold so much force - probably way more than any person before ever had.

She had to suppress an exasperated sigh. While Rapunzel’s biggest concern was becoming too powerful to handle it, Cassandra was still waiting in the shadows, acting merely as the silent support of the person who was always the shining star. Still, she was desperate to stand by Rapunzel’s side, watching her achieving what she assumed to be her destiny - and patiently waiting for her own moment to finally shine.

“I don't know, but whatever happens, you won't be facing it alone,” Cass assured her, chasing away the intrusive thoughts. “We’ll be with you all along the way, as always.”

“Dragon Lady is right,” Eugene added, putting his arm around Rapunzel’s shoulders. “It's now or never, and we’ll face it head on, together. We’ve got this.”

“We’ve somehow managed to make it this far, right?” Rapunzel joined in with a smile, apparently reassured by their support. “With you by my side, I can do anything.”

And with that, they all started to climb down the cliff, towards the Dark Kingdom. They still couldn't be sure what the future would hold for them, but for now, they felt like they could achieve anything, as long as they were together.

Few hours later, after a brief break they took to eat something and catch their breaths, they continued their journey through the forests surrounding the Dark Kingdom. Rapunzel and Eugene took the lead, and Cassandra and Lance were walking just a few steps behind them, close enough to hear their conversation pretty well.

At first, Cass wasn't paying the two lovebirds any special attention. She focused on talking with Lance, who was trying to show off by doing tricks with an elastic string. For lack of better things to be doing at the moment, Cass decided to entertain his game - and show him how much better at it she is.

“No one is gonna turn against me,” Rapunzel sounded more like she was trying to convince herself than Eugene. She was talking loudly enough that Cass couldn’t help but overhear, and her words were alarming enough that she decided she needed to know what her friend was on about. She squinted and gestured for Lance to be quiet. When he gave her an offended look, she briefly gestured to the couple. “Demanitus has to be wrong. Everyone’s had my back this far. They're not gonna stop now.”

“Unless they think they're protecting you,” Eugene protested, looking genuinely concerned. “After all, that's how Cass injured her hand.”

Cassandra grit her teeth. If Fitzherbjerk really suspected her of treacherous tendencies, he was extremely stupid to announce it in her presence like that. Just like Rapunzel, he didn't even try to lower his voice.

The Princess casted a brief glance in Cassandra’s direction. Cass focused her eyes at the string she was still holding in her hands, hoping that Rapunzel didn't notice that she was listening to what they were saying.

“You don't think that Cass…” she asked quietly. Disbelief in her voice did bring Cassandra a little bit of comfort, but it still stung that Rapunzel was considering such a possibility in the first place.

“Look, look, look, I love Cass,” Eugene said defensively. Cassandra rolled her eyes. Of course he did. “She's become like a sister to me. Granted, you know, an annoying sister you only put up with because you have to, but maybe we should, you know, keep an eye on…”

Cassandra was one stupid word away from snapping at him. Keep an eye on what, exactly? The only person with enough common sense to really care about the dangers their stupidity was constantly putting them in? The one who’s had their backs all this time, even though any other rational person would consider all of them completely hopeless a long time ago? That's who he wanted to keep an eye on?!

But before Cass could say anything, Eugene was interrupted by a raven colliding with his face at full speed.

Cassandra smirked. She never believed in karma, but if it existed, it seemed to be it.

“What is that bird doing?” Eugene stammered, looking at the disoriented raven walking aimlessly around his legs.

Cassandra, however, had bigger worries at the moment. She was the first who heard the sound of multiple birds cawing nearby. When she looked up at the sky she was met with the sight of a large flock of angry ravens coming straight at them, seemingly much more focused and determined than their friend, which was still stumbling around Eugene’s feet.

“Uh, maybe you should try asking his friends,” she said, gesturing towards the upcoming danger.

The following battle against the surprisingly aggressive flock of birds was as annoying as it was short. The entire ordeal ended with Rapunzel catching all the birds in her hair, shaking them up a little and sending them back to the Dark Kingdom. Cassandra would be lying if she said that she didn't get any satisfaction from the fact that Eugene got accidentally caught up in Rapunzel’s hair as well. She felt like he deserved to be trapped with a bunch of angry birds for how he doubted her.

“Wonderful, even the birds in this Kingdom are hostile!” he grumbled, struggling to get back on his feet.

“It's gonna take a lot more than a bunch of birds to stop us!” Rapunzel announced with unwavering confidence. “Um, something like this, for example,” she added nervously, looking at the deep, wide chasm filled with black rocks that was separating them from the Dark Kingdom.

“Anybody have any idea how we get across this thing?” Eugene asked, gesturing towards this unexpected obstacle, clearly exasperated.

As they split up to search for any possible ways to get across, Cassandra did her best to get away from the rest of their company before anyone could stop her. She tried to ignore Lance’s worried glance and Eugene’s untrusting eyes subtly watching her every move. She even sent Owl away to search for a solution on his own. She needed to be alone, and she needed it now.

Cassandra wandered alongside the edge of the chasm, lost in her thoughts, for a long time. She knew she was supposed to be looking for means to get on the other side of the bottomless pit and to the Dark Kingdom, but the conversation between Rapunzel and Eugene she just overheard didn’t let her really focus on the task at hand.

She couldn’t believe that both of the people she considered to be her best friends suspected her of planning to betray them. What did she ever do to them to warrant such a mistrust? Did they believe in whatever cryptic warning Demanitus gave them more than they believed in her loyalty?

Cass took a deep breath. She knew the answer to this question. After all, Demanitus wasn’t the first suspicious intruder that Rapunzel decided to value so much higher than she ever valued Cassandra. The journey to the Dark Kingdom was a difficult test for her relationship with Rapunzel, the test she felt like she was failing from the very first days on the road.

Cassandra was suspicious of Adira and her intentions from the very beginning. She told Rapunzel that this stranger couldn’t be trusted. Adira obviously knew a lot more than she was willing to tell them, she was feeding them whatever crumbs of information she wanted, and her true intentions and goals were a mystery. Not to mention that she was a smug, annoying know-it-all who Cassandra simply couldn’t stand. Nonetheless, Rapunzel decided to let this suspicious warrior woman join their team, and soon enough, she started to value her judgment and advice way more highly than she ever valued Cassandra’s.

The entire situation escalated with Rapunzel becoming simultaneously more careless and more self-assured with every day of the journey, and Cassandra becoming more and more frustrated - with Rapunzel herself, with Adira, with the rest of their team who were always either staying silent or taking Rapunzel’s side in any given conflict, and with herself. She didn’t know if she did anything to make the Princess doubt her like this, to completely ignore all her warnings, no matter how justified they were.

All of this tension was building up for months, until it finally led to the events in the Great Tree. It was another thing that Cassandra tried to warn Rapunzel about. The Great Tree was once the stronghold of Zhan Tiri, the powerful, evil warlock who cursed Corona with a devastating blizzard, and now it was a domain of Hector, the insane man who attacked them with the help of his super-aggressive animal companions just hours before. Of course staying in there for the night was a terrible, terrible idea.

But obviously Rapunzel disregarded her advice again. Instead of at least listening to Cass’ argument, she used her authority as the Princess to order her to stand down and humiliate her in front of their friends and Adira. It was rejection more painful than anything Cassandra ever experienced before.

It still wasn’t more painful than the conversation that followed when Rapunzel was trying to make peace with her, though. Instead of listening to what Cassandra had to say, the Princess doubled down on her imperious, condescending tone.

“Since when did you stop trusting my judgement?”

“Cass, you are the closest thing that I will have to a big sister. But I’m not that naive girl fresh out of the tower anymore. I am going to be Queen someday and I can promise you, I’m going to make decisions that you’re going to disagree with, and I need you to be okay with that.”

It didn’t take long for Rapunzel to make another reckless, dangerous decision that Cassandra very much disagreed with. Instead of allowing her to try and defeat the Great Tree with the spear, the Princess decided to use the decay spell again. The same spell that was draining life from everything and everyone it made concat with. The same spell Rapunzel knew she had no control over. She really decided that it was safer to use this spell than to trust that Cass could save the day herself for once.

Rapunzel went away from this confrontation unharmed, but Cassandra suffered serious injury when she was trying to break the Princess out of the trance that she willingly got herself into. The curse burned Cass’ hand so deeply that she wasn’t able to even hold the sword for days after the incident, and later she had to re-learn to use her hand entirely. Even though she was doing a bit better now, her hand was still pitifully weak in comparison to her earlier strength and agility. She still felt occasional pangs of intense pain when she least expected it, and she couldn’t even look at her blackened, burnt body without getting slightly sick.

Rapunzel, of course, never apologized for injuring Cass like that. She didn’t even acknowledge that she did anything wrong at all.

“I’m mad at you, too. I told you that I had it under control and you didn’t listen,” she said.

Which was an interesting point, considering that Cassandra remembered exactly what happened in the Great Tree. After casting the decay incantation, Rapunzel was just standing there, her black hair tangled around the dying heart of the Tree, and she kept reciting the lyrics of this horrible spell over and over again, even though every member of their team was already free from Tree’s vines. When Cass was trying to urge her to let go, the Princess couldn’t break the curse’s influence. Her distraught voice was still haunting Cassandra’s nightmares.

“I can’t control it!”

Obviously, Rapunzel learned nothing from the entire ordeal. Not so long after that, she decided that it would be an amazing idea to spend the night in the House of Yesterday’s Tomorrow. Once again, she didn’t even take the time to consider what Cass had to say on the matter, and neither did the rest of their friends.

As a result, just hours into their stay in this demonic death trap Cassandra, Eugene, Lance and Shorty ended up imprisoned inside of some cursed, black and white mirror dimension, replaced by the evil doppelgangers in the real world.

“I said we shouldn’t come to this place, but did anyone listen? No…”

“No, we did not. But in our defense, we never listen to you.”

Eugene was right. As painful and infuriating as it was, they indeed never listened to her. They also kept getting into bigger and bigger trouble because of it, but that was a correlation they didn’t seem to notice at all.

Cass’ thoughts wandered to another thing that happened in the House of Yesterday’s Tomorrow. She was trying her hardest to forget what she saw behind this cursed door, about the things this little demonic ghost she met there forced her to recall, and about the advice it gave her. She was doing a pretty decent job at distracting herself from all of that up until now. But now, when she finally focused on her pain and anger, she couldn’t suppress these memories any longer.

“I’m sorry that happened to you, Cassandra. Sometimes the most painful truths are the most difficult to remember. You’ve always felt outshined by Rapunzel, haven’t you? And you always will, unless…”

“Unless?”

“Unless you finally take your destiny into your own hands. Rapunzel believes taking the Moonstone to be her own destiny, and she took everything from you. Don’t you think it’s a perfect opportunity to finally leave her shadow once and for all?”

Back then, Cassandra was too devastated and furious to argue with the suspicious little ghost. She indeed did always feel outshined by Rapunzel, and at the moment, it really felt like the Princess took everything from her.

After Rapunzel returned to Corona, Cassandra was immediately made her lady-in-waiting by the royal couple, even though she hoped that they could finally fulfill her life-long dream of joining the Royal Guard. Not long after that, she had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to join Ingvarr’s military. Rapunzel basically guilt tripped her into abandoning this amazing possibility to be a real warrior in a Kingdom where women doing that sort of thing wasn’t frowned upon. Cassandra stayed in Corona as Rapunzel’s servant instead, even though they weren’t even friends back then. Some time later, Rapunzel won the Challenge of the Brave on technicality, even though Cass was obviously more skilled from the two of them. When Cass was trying to prove to her dad and to the King that she was worthy of being a soldier, Rapunzel nearly ruined her efforts to protect the Book of Hearts and arrest this Saporian separatist. And, above all, Cassandra almost got sent to a convent because she wanted to show Rapunzel the world beyond the castle walls and have a little adventure together, just for one night.

It seemed like since Rapunzel appeared in Cassandra’s life, it was just one humiliating failure after another. Even more than it was before, that is.

During their journey things only got worse for Cass. Rapunzel not only was ignoring her warnings and advice, she insisted that she didn’t need Cassandra’s protection at all. She didn’t seem to either understand or care that she could as well straight up call Cass useless. And now, it turned out even Cassandra’s own mother abandoned her because of the precious little Sundrop Princess.

Despite all of that, Cassandra was always loyal to Rapunzel. She did everything in her power to protect her best friend both from outside dangers and from her own reckless decisions. She risked her own safety and sacrificed her ambitions for Rapunzel’s sake, because she felt like this was the right thing to do.

Even after everything Cassandra gave up for her, Rapunzel didn’t seem to value her at all. She didn’t hesitate to publicly humiliate her, she ignored her advice again and again, she kept getting them all into dangerous situations, and she was trusting random strangers with suspicious intentions way more than she ever trusted her so-called best friend.

Maybe taking the Moonstone was the opportunity to finally leave Rapunzel’s shadow.

Cassandra shook her head, trying to get rid of this thought. No. She wasn’t going to betray Rapunzel like that. She will not prove Demanitus and Eugene right. She didn’t come that far to fail in the most important moment.

She had some time to think about everything, and she knew for a fact that the spirit from the House of Yesterday’s Tomorrow, whatever or whoever it was, was trying to manipulate her.

Obviously, the knowledge that even Cassandra’s own mother chose Rapunzel over her was painful. More painful that Cass could even express, in fact. At the beginning it was almost enough to make her consider betraying Rapunzel and taking the Moonstone for herself. Her mother was everything she had as a four-year-old child, and the Princess took that from her, too. Maybe taking her destiny, which she was so fixated on, was the only way to get even.

But when Cass shook off the first wave of grief and anger, the common sense came back to her. How could she blame Rapunzel, who was an infant at the time, for stealing her mother from her? Gothel was an adult - ancient, in fact - woman, and she made her own despicable choices. She decided to kidnap the Princess of Corona for her Sundrop powers, and she didn’t hesitate to abandon her own daughter in the process. Both Cassandra and Rapunzel were the victims of this woman’s cruelty.

Not to mention that Cass heard enough of Rapunzel’s stories to know that she was kind of lucky not to be raised by Gothel all of her childhood. Her life in Corona wasn’t perfect by any means, of course. The constant threat of being sent to a convent, being forced into a role of a servant even though everyone knew about her ambition and abilities, being rejected by most of the people for not fitting into the definition of a lady, not to mention her father lying to her about her parentage her whole life - all of it was incredibly painful, and she knew that she would have to address this at some point in the future. But at least she was allowed to be outside and train to become a warrior instead of cleaning the cottage and cooking meals every day. In the last few weeks she remembered enough of her early days in Gothel’s home to know that this wasn’t a life she ever wished to lead.

She was certain she couldn’t trust anything that she encountered in the House of Yesterday’s Tomorrow. She didn’t know why this strange creature that introduced herself as a “friend” wanted her to betray Rapunzel and take the Moonstone so much, but she was convinced that its intentions were sinister. She wasn’t going to play into whatever plan it had for her.

“Hoo?” The concerned sound pulled her out of her thoughts.

Cassandra looked up. Owl was sitting on the bench of the nearby tree, looking at her with worried eyes. Cass knew her friend well enough to know exactly what he had in mind. He really cared about her - not only if she will bring herself to do the right thing despite everything, but also how she was coping with yet another pain caused by Rapunzel.

Cass managed a small, hesitant smile. It was good to have at least one friend who cared about her wellbeing more than about Rapunzel’s destiny.

“I’ll be fine,” she assured him, though it didn’t sound convincing even to herself. “We’ve got this.”

Chapter Text

After a long time of wandering along the edge of the chasm, most of their team finally let the frustration get to them.

Eugene, Lance and Shorty were sitting on a big stone near the edge of the cliff with Maximus and Fidella standing next to them, visibly anxious. Meanwhile, Cassandra was pacing nearby, still not over everything she was trying to unpack for the last few painful hours. The only ones who were still trying to find some solution were Owl and Rapunzel with Pascal.

After what felt like eternity, Rapunzel approached their little disheartened gathering, visibly excited and proud of herself.

“I’ve found a way across!” she announced enthusiastically.

The rest of them stood up and quickly followed the Princess. Despite everything that happened that day, Cassandra found herself genuinely intrigued. Maybe they were going to finally make another step towards their destination and at last get this entire thing over with.

“Ta-da!” Rapunzel exclaimed, proudly gesturing at some old wagon hanging above the chasm, far away from the ground. Cassandra’s tentative excitement quickly gave place to exasperation. Of course. “C’mon, who's afraid of a little gondola?”

As if on cue, a small piece of rotten wood fell off of the devastated wagon.

Cassandra instinctively raised her hand. As much as she didn’t like to admit her own fear, or any weakness, for that matter, she couldn’t hide the fact that she really wasn’t a fan of the idea of getting into this little death trap.

She wasn’t alone with her doubts, either. Both Eugene and Lance, who were usually so full of both bravado and genuine courage, raised their hands as well.

Rapunzel didn’t seem bothered by their reaction in the slightest. She gave them all high fives, clearly still enthusiastic about the idea.

“Yeah, high fives, I love this attitude!”

“Blondie, that thing is a good fifty yards out there,” Eugene noticed sensibly.

Cassandra, however, already made her choice. She quickly pushed away any fear or hesitation she might have, just as she always did. She was determined to finally get to this Moonstone and be done with this ridiculous journey. If achieving that goal demanded walking a tightrope above a deep chasm filled with sharp, indestructible rocks, so be it.

“I can get it,” she interrupted him. “I’ll get across, then lead it back here to the rest of you.”

Rapunzel, despite her earlier eagerness, didn’t seem so sure about this plan.

“Um, I don't know, Cass,” she said hesitantly.

Cass grit her teeth. All of the feelings of betrayal that she was trying to process for the last few hours hit her once again, way stronger and more painful than before. It was yet another proof that her supposed best friend trusted some stupid monkey’s “prophecy” way more than she trusted Cassandra. Of course she wasn’t going to rely on her with this.

Cassandra raised her hand to her chest, trying to push down all the pain and anger and sadness that hit her at this moment. She had a task to do, and she couldn’t afford to dwell on her feelings anymore.

“Trust me, I can do it!” she said urgently, trying to ignore almost physical pain in her chest.

“Of course I trust you…” Rapunzel assured her, sounding as unconvincing as possible. Cass saw how she exchanged worried looks with Eugene. He was even worse at hiding his obvious mistrust than Rapunzel was. Cass hated the way he squinted at her. “Um, we trust you, but… your hand!” The Princess looked almost relieved, as if she found a good enough excuse not to entrust Cassandra with this task.

Cass looked down at her right hand, now hidden and protected by the steel armor she found near the ruins of the Great Tree. She was doing her best not to think about how Rapunzel was trying to use this injury, the one she caused because she couldn’t bring herself to listen to her for once, to justify disregarding her again.

“Even with my hand I’m still the most agile of all of us,” she answered simply.

This was something no one in their team could argue with. After exchanging one more look with her boyfriend, Rapunzel finally gave Cass a small, hesitant smile and an approving nod.

Cassandra has been training walking the tightrope since she was a little kid. It was a part of the guard training, and she had it mastered to perfection. Just like most of the things she learnt back then, she never really had a chance to put this ability to a good use, until now. She was glad that her skills finally proved themselves valuable.

Part of Cassandra hoped that bringing the gondola to her friends would be enough to show them that she was brave, competent and trustworthy. After all, risking her life by walking on the unstable cable beyond the deadly chasm just to help Rapunzel fulfill her destiny had to count for something, right?

The other part of her knew that if all she had done until now didn’t convince them, probably nothing ever will.

Nonetheless, in the matter of minutes she got to the gondola and climbed inside. It took her a moment to figure out how to properly move that thing. When she did, she felt really proud of herself for the first time in a long while.

When she finally got the wagon to her friends, she came to the window, waiting for them to get inside. Instead, they took a few long seconds to just stand there with stupid smiles plastered on their faces. Cassandra couldn’t stand how pleasantly surprised they all looked.

She didn’t have any mental energy left to deal with any of them. She quickly opened the door, not even trying to hide her annoyance.

“Um, did you want me to get the door for you, too?” she snarked.

But when Rapunzel hugged her, she couldn’t help but smile and melt into her embrace.

She wasn’t sure why the Princess’ touch worked on her like that. She wasn’t really used to hugging anyone and she liked her personal space very much, but wherever her best friend embraced her, her mood was immediately lightened, no matter how mad or upset she was. She supposed it was just Rapunzel’s magic.

Few minutes later all of the team was finally inside the somewhat-stable gondola. Eugene suggested that he and Lance will take care of getting it to the other side, but Cass immediately insisted that she will be the one to crank the lever with Lance. Even though Rapunzel’s hug made her feel a little better, she still wasn’t comfortable talking with the Princess one on one. Not after everything she heard today.

“Um, that was pretty brave what you did back there,” Lance said after a while of working in comfortable silence. His tone was almost teasing, but Cass could tell that he was genuinely impressed. “I mean, I was gonna do it before you volunteered, but…”

“Thanks, Lance,” she cut him off with a smile. It was nice to be recognized by someone for a change. “I know how much Raps wants to fulfill her destiny, and I want to help her in any way I can.”

“You really buy all this destiny stuff?” Lance asked incredulously.

Cassandra sighed. She glanced towards the window, where Rapunzel and Eugene were both looking outside, murmuring something to each other. This time, Cass couldn't quite make out what exactly they were saying.

“Not at all, to be honest,” she admitted quietly. “I believe that everyone is in charge of their own fate. And since Rapunzel seems to care about this destiny so much… I suppose this is the fate that she chose for herself.”

“Whoa, that's deep,” Lance glanced at her with something that she could only call appreciation. “You know, Rapunzel is lucky to have someone like you supporting her no matter what. You really are a great friend, Cass.”

“Yeah, a friend…” Cass murmured, once again looking at her so-called best friends by the window. Looking at the two of them, probably discussing if they could still trust Cass despite Demanitus’ prophecy, was causing her almost physical pain. After everything she had done…

Lance hesitated for a moment, clearly unsure if he should outright address the thing they both overheard Rapunzel and Eugene talking about a few hours back. After a moment, he cleared his throat, apparently deciding it was worth risking being hit in the head if Cass lost what was left of her patience.

“You know, Cass, what Eugene said back there was really shitty,” he began. Cass raised her brow. He really was taking her side against his best buddy? “You always had all our backs, even when things were bad. He didn't have the right to suspect you of anything, and especially not because some ancient monkey told him so. He's so worried about Rapunzel that he isn't thinking straight. Not that it excuses him trash-talking you like that. I’ll have a talk with him when it's all over, don't you worry.”

“Wow, uhm, thanks, Lance,” Cass stammered, surprised by his support. She wasn't used to anyone standing up for her, so Lance taking her side like that was an unexpected but welcome change.

Before any of them could add anything else, they were interrupted by a loud thud as something, or someone, very heavy landed on top of the gondola. Eugene opened a small door in the roof - and barely closed it fast enough to avoid being hit by a battle ax.

“Can we not go just one place without some weirdo jumping out of nowhere?!” he yelled, more angry than scared by another potentially deadly interruption.

“Cass, Lance, you guys keep cranking,” Rapunzel ordered, letting her hair down. “Get us across as fast as possible. Eugene, let's go see what our new friend wants.”

Cass wasn't too happy that she wasn't able to take part in the battle that was taking place on the roof of the gondola, or even see what was happening up there. She heard loud noises indicating the fight, screams of her friends and incoherent growling of the mysterious attacker, and the only thing she could do was cranking the gondola as fast as humanly possible - and hoping that it would be enough.

“Guys!” Rapunzel yelled, looking inside with an urgent expression that said basically everything Cass needed to know. “I’m not trying to rush you… Go faster!”

They both immediately complied, determined to get back on earth as fast as possible. Cass couldn't remember the last time when she put so much effort into something.

But even she couldn't ignore Adira, who entered the scene with a loud scream, knocked down the attacker, and then had the audacity to wave to them through the hole in the roof.

“Where did she come from?” she asked, exasperated.

“Like an angel, she fell from heaven,” Lance answered with his stupid, dreamy voice.

Cassandra rolled her eyes. As much as she appreciated Lance’s support, she just couldn't tolerate the dumb crush he had on this insufferable woman.

“And now Adira’s here, because why wouldn't she be?!” Eugene sounded just as exasperated as Cass was. At this moment, she wasn't even angry at him for suspecting her of treachery.

As much as Cass hated Adira, she had to admit that it was convenient to have another skilled warrior fighting on their side, especially against an enemy that seemed to be both very well-trained and very determined to kill them all, no matter the cost. Unfortunately, after some more noises of the fight, wild screams, thuds and clashing of weapons, they saw Adira falling from the gondola’s roof, straight into the chasm filled with black rocks.

“Adira! No!” Lance yelled, terrified.

Cass couldn't tell that she shared his terror. True, even though she simply couldn't stand Adira, she also didn't necessarily wish her to die, and she probably would feel guilty if she sacrificed her life fighting on their side.

Fortunately, she was pretty certain that Adira would somehow find a way to survive that fall. She found the way in the Forest of No Return and she touched Rapunzel when she was reciting the decay spell for the first time, and she survived without a single scratch. Cass had a feeling that she would find her way out of this chasm, too.

The more pressing matter right now was that they were once again left alone in an extremely unstable gondola with the weirdo in a bear mask clearly bent on murdering them all.

That was the moment the masked guy chose to cut one of the wooden supports of the gondola, causing it to tilt vertically. Lance, Cassandra, Shorty, Max and Fidella were all doing their very best not to fall to their doom - not that there was a lot they could do at the moment. Cassandra had sudden flashbacks to the moment when one of Zhan Tiri’s servants threw her and Eugene off the cliff at Janus Point, nearly sending them both to their deaths.

And just like that time, Rapunzel used her hair as a rope. She helped them to climb at the top of the gondola, which was now holding on by a thread - but also thankfully close enough to the ground that they could probably jump to safety. If there wasn't a huge, bloodthirsty guy in a bear mask with an ax standing in their way, that is.

“Rapunzel, you and the others, go,” Eugene ordered as soon as they were all standing outside. “I’ll hold off Mister Personality.”

“But…” she tried to protest, but for once she was the one cut off by her boyfriend’s firm voice.

“I said go, now!” Eugene commanded, already turning towards the enemy.

Cassandra didn't wait for what would happen next. Ignoring Rapunzel's protests and struggling, she caught her, hoisted her over her shoulder and forcefully took her to the ground on the other side of the chasm.

“Cassandra, wait!” Rapunzel yelled, trying to break free. “Eugene!”

Just a few seconds after they all safely returned to the ground, the gondola fell into the chasm, and Eugene and their mysterious enemy along with it.

“No!” Rapunzel's wild scream cut through the air, making Cassandra’s heart ache in the ways she didn't know before.

Cassandra gently touched Rapunzel’s arm in what she hoped was a comforting gesture.

She didn't entirely process the events of the past minute herself. It felt impossible that Eugene really lost his life to protect them. It wasn't true. It couldn't be true.

“I'm… I'm so sorry, Raps…” she whispered, unsure what else she could say.

“This is not how our story ends,” Rapunzel announced, getting back on her feet. “We're going back to get him.”

Before anyone else could respond, Adira entered the scene once more. She was dusting herself off, as if nothing extraordinary happened.

Cass rolled her eyes. She knew that.

“No need, he's fine,” Adira said calmly. “He made it safely into the cave below, I saw it. Now, come. Fishskin didn't risk his life so that we can waste time looking for him.”

At this moment Cass thought that maybe she wouldn't feel so guilty if this jerk never climbed out of the chasm after all. How could she be so nonchalant when one of their friends almost died in a fight with someone from the Kingdom she led them to?!

This time, Rapunzel seemed to share in Cass’ annoyance. She lassoed Adira with her hair, clearly done with her cryptic bullshit.

Cassandra didn't even try to hold back a satisfied smirk. Finally.

“Just a minute, Adira,” the Princess commanded. “You knew that knight back there. In fact, I bet you know a lot of things you’re not telling us. We're not going another step until you start giving us answers.”

Adira sighed, clearly considering the situation, and gave them a single reluctant nod.

“You're right, Princess. It's time you heard a whole story.”

And she finally told them everything.

Cassandra wasn't the one to be fascinated by the legends by any means, but even she couldn't help but lose herself in the story.

Once upon a time a single drop of moonlight fell from the heavens, and from this drop of moonlight formed a single seductive opal stone. It had the ability to destroy any and all who would seek to possess it.

Centuries passed. The Opal’s defenses spread, and from that grew a Kingdom. Generation after generation of Dark Kings stood guard here, helping to protect the world from the Opal’s limitless power.

But it was Edmund, the last of the Dark Kings, who tried to end this legacy and destroy the Stone. That ended with a disaster that killed his wife and completely destroyed his right arm.

Hearing this detail, Cass instinctively clenched the fist of her own right hand.

In the fallout, the King was forced to command everyone to leave and never return, including even his only son, the Crown Prince Horace, who was just an infant at the time. He sent his most trusted soldiers into the world to ensure this power was kept a secret, for if it ever fell into the wrong hands, it would mean certain doom. These knights called themselves the Brotherhood. Cassandra, Rapunzel and their friends already met all members of said Brotherhood - Quirin, Varian’s father; Hector, crazy righno guy who tried to kill them in the Great Tree; and, of course, Adira herself.

“I refused to believe such darkness could exist without the light of equal power somewhere in this world,” Adira continued her story. “As usual, I was right. After years of searching I found the Sundrop. Only you, Rapunzel, can restore balance to all things.”

“If you’ve known this all along, why have you been so cryptic?” Rapunzel asked incredulously.

Cassandra squinted in suspicion. After hearing everything Adira had to say, she was certain that the reason for her keeping the secret for so long couldn't be anything good.

“While I'm certain bringing the Sundrop to the Moonstone would neutralize its threat, I’m not sure what will happen to you,” Adira said simply, giving Rapunzel a solemn look. Cassandra felt her blood run cold. She couldn't hear this right.

“You mean if Rapunzel touches the Moonstone, she could…”

“I did not come this far to stop now,” Rapunzel cut her off, placing a hand on her shoulder.

Cassandra could hardly believe her own ears. She did hear Rapunzel using this determined tone many times now. It always meant the end of discussion of any kind - the Princess had already made her decision and any arguments Cassandra could use would fall on deaf ears. She could try to reason with her, to beg and plead and explain all she wanted, but nothing would work. It never did.

Rapunzel didn't listen when Cassandra was trying to warn her about drinking tea in the woods with some strangers, and it almost ended with their team turned into the birds forever. She didn't listen when Cass tried to convince her not to enter the Great Tree, and it ended up with the Tree attacking and almost killing them. She ignored Cass’ plea not to use the Decay Incantation again, and it burnt Cass’ hand so badly that she still had trouble using it. She went into the House of Yesterday's Tomorrow, completely disregarding Cassandra’s doubts, and they all knew how well that went. She decided to put her trust in Adira instead, and now it turned out this horrid woman was leading her like the lamb for the slaughter this entire time.

And even though Cassandra was right about her doubts every time so far, she was certain beyond a shadow of a doubt that Rapunzel still wouldn't take her time to listen to her.

“Cass, you of all people should know I can handle myself pretty well out here. I don’t need someone to keep me safe.”

“I am going to be Queen someday and I can promise you, I'm going to make decisions that you're going to disagree with, and I need you to be okay with that.”

Well, Cassandra wasn't okay with letting Rapunzel commit some sort of a glorified suicide in the name of her so-called destiny. She understood the Princess’ need for freedom and independence very well, maybe even better than anyone else. Even so, it wasn't more important than her life.

Cassandra made the oath that she will protect the Princess - no matter the cost, and no matter if she wanted her protection or not. And that's exactly what she was going to do. She would protect Rapunzel, even if she needed to save her from her own reckless stubbornness. Even if she had to sacrifice her own life in the process.

“Good. Are we all friends again?” Adira asked calmly, as if they were setting some trivial argument. Cassandra never in her entire life wanted to murder someone so badly.

“Sure,” Rapunzel shrugged, following her without further questions. Pascal on her shoulder didn't seem bothered by the entire ordeal, either.

“We never were,” Cassandra murmured under her breath.

Rapunzel clearly already made her decision - and so did Cassandra. She didn't believe in destiny, but maybe taking the Moonstone from under Rapunzel was her opportunity to take fate into her own hands for once.

Chapter Text

Adira led Rapunzel and the rest of their team to the main entrance of the castle. Cassandra was walking just behind the two of them, still trying to process what she just heard.

She really shouldn’t be surprised that Adira was planning to sacrifice, or at least risk, Rapunzel’s life to neutralize Moonstone’s threat. This woman was a huge walking red flag from the very first moment they met. She suddenly showed up out of nowhere at the beginning of their journey, claimed to be their friend and gave them the second piece of the Demanitus Scroll. Since then, she kept just randomly showing up, giving them cryptic clues and leading them towards the Dark Kingdom in the most winding, dangerous and exhausting way imaginable. She was always close, ready to appear out of nowhere in the most inconvenient times possible, but never quite a part of their team. (For this, Cassandra was grateful. She was certain that if Adira was accompanying them every day for the last year, she would lose her mind and slide her throat in her sleep.) All of that while being insufferable, infuriating know-it-all. It was more than obvious for Cass that Adira had to have some ulterior motives she didn’t want to share. Now they knew for sure what those motives were.

In retrospect, Cass started to think that Adira always trying to dismiss her was very purposeful on her part. From the very first day she was doing her very best to convince Rapunzel to ignore Cass’ concerns and trust her advice instead. From that point, things have only gotten worse with her. She was deliberately trying to one-up Cassandra in every way possible, reduce any influence she might have on the Princess, and in the process destroy Cass’ confidence, even going as far as calling her a servant. Of course it was all part of her plan - she was trying to make Rapunzel and the others ignore the one person who treated the dangers they were facing seriously. What's worse, she succeeded. By the time they arrived at the Great Tree, Rapunzel was certain that she didn’t need Cass to keep her safe. She was fully trusting Adira’s judgement instead.

To tell the truth, it wasn’t unexpected for Rapunzel to make similarly irresponsible decisions in the heat of the moment. She already repeatedly risked her life - all of their lives, really - for even stupider reasons. She decided to drink tea in the woods with strangers and then just be birds for a day for fun, she agreed to enter the Great Tree, she used the Decay Incantation twice and she went into the House of Yesterday's Tomorrow, to name a few. She somehow managed to survive all of that without any serious consequences, at least for herself. She was incredibly lucky so many times that she probably suspected that it would stay this way forever.

But Cassandra wasn’t willing to risk it.

She was aware of the danger, of course. She heard Adira saying that the Stone could destroy anyone who wanted to possess it. This wasn’t going to stop her, though. It’s not like it was the first time she was risking her life to protect Rapunzel, both from external dangers and from herself.

Cass sighed, looking down at her armored right hand. She didn’t want to admit this, even to herself, for all these weeks, but she had to finally face the reality. The hand wasn’t just an inconvenience or a source of physical discomfort. It wasn’t just not healing, either. The rot that was consuming her hand was spreading up her arm, slowly but surely. She was certain that Rapunzel had cursed her to wither and decay alive, until…

“Rapunzel never cared for you, Cassandra, did she? She is so fixated on her own destiny that she doesn’t bother to see how much she’s hurting you. You gave her everything, and she took all of it… Including your life. Taking the Moonstone is your chance to claim all of it back.”

Cassandra knew that she shouldn’t trust the little ghostly demon she met in the House of Yesterday’s Tomorrow, whatever it was. However… it wasn’t like the Ghost Girl was wrong.

Maybe by taking the Moonstone Cassandra could save more than just one life after all.

“We’re here,” Rapunzel finally announced with a smile, pulling Cass out of her thoughts.

Indeed, they could already see the main gate leading to the castle from here.

“Be on your guard,” Adira warned Rapunzel, putting a hand on her shoulder. Cass winced. She couldn’t stand how this disgusting woman dared to act as if she cared about Rapunzel’s life at all. Even more so, she was disappointed that Raps still was letting Adira touch her. “This path is lined with lethal, inescapable traps.” As the woman touched the very first step, a bunch of rusty metal spikes shot from the floor. “Watch out!” she yelled, pushing Rapunzel away with one hand.

Fortunately her worry turned out to be unnecessary. The spikes shaked for a second or two and then they turned into dust on their own.

Cass didn’t hold back her mocking laughter.

“Great traps,” she snarked, rolling her eyes.

“Okay, so I oversold the traps a little. They’re old,” Adira admitted, shrugging.

Before Cassandra could tell something more, Rapunzel’s hair started glowing with the same otherworldly light Cass saw many times before. It was the same brightness that often accompanied moments of Rapunzel controlling the black rocks. This time, her thick braid lifted vertically into the air, as if picked up by a strong wind. The entire thing lasted no more than a few seconds, but it was enough to both amaze and scare them all.

“Uh, what was that?” Cassandra asked pointedly. She didn’t like whatever was happening.

“The Moonstone. It must know the Sundrop is close,” Adira explained.

“Then we’d better get on with this,” Rapunzel commanded, using the same determined tone as earlier. It only made Cass even more certain that there simply wasn’t any possibility to talk her out of this.

Without waiting for their reaction or even looking back at all, the Princess took the lead toward the entrance to the castle. Adira followed right behind her. Meanwhile Cassandra and Lance exchanged worried glances behind their backs. Cass knew that Lance could guess what was on her mind, and while hesitant, he seemed to understand where she was coming from.

Thankfully, all of the “lethal, inescapable traps” on their way either were just as useless as the rusty spikes, or didn’t activate at all. After a short while they stood in front of the doors to the castle. Cassandra, Lance and Adira used the mechanism lifting the door to open them up slightly.

In the threshold stood Eugene. Cassandra found herself sighing with relief. Right now she didn’t even care about how he accused her of possibly turning her back against Rapunzel. She was just happy to see her friend alive and well.

Even still, she couldn’t help but notice Eugene’s expression. He looked sad and guilty, as if he was about to do something unforgivable. Her initial relief was quickly replaced with worry. Rapunzel didn’t seem to notice how her boyfriend was just standing there, looking conflicted and avoiding her gaze. She was just too happy to see him again, safe and sound. She gasped in delight, lifting both hands to her mouth.

“Eugene! Oh, thank goodness you’re okay! I was so-” It was the moment when she finally noticed the haunted look on Eugene’s face. “Eugene? What is it?”

“I’m sorry, Rapunzel,” he said quietly, clearly avoiding looking her in the eyes. “But I won’t let you in.”

With that, the King standing inside with Eugene used Adira’s sword to cut the chain of the mechanism opening the door, locking them outside.

“Eugene! Let me in!” Rapunzel demanded, banging in the door. “Eugene!”

There was no answer. Rapunzel leaned against the closed gate, devastated.

“One of her company will turn against her,” she said quietly, yet still loudly enough for Cassandra to hear her. “I can’t believe this.”

Cass frowned. It would be ironic, almost funny, in fact, if after treating her with such mistrust Eugene would turn out to be the one to actually turn his back against his beloved girlfriend.

The thing was, Cass didn’t believe that, either. She didn’t know what on Earth was Demanitus’ deal, but she was sure that the warning he gave to Eugene wasn't an actual prophecy at all. After Adira’s revelation, she even started to think that the ancient alchemist was yet another person who was willing to neutralise Moonstone’s threat by sacrificing Rapunzel’s life. The so-called prophecy could be a way to build mistrust and tension in the group, to make Rapunzel even more fixated on this destiny of hers.

And even if her speculation wasn’t correct, Cass was certain that Eugene didn’t really turn his back against Rapunzel. He loved her way too much to just betray her like that. Perhaps the King told him the same things Adira explained to the rest of their party, and Eugene, just like Cassandra, decided to protect Rapunzel from her own recklessness.

The rest of their party seemed to think the same.

“Princess, listen to me,” Lance said solemnly. “I’ve known Eugene my entire life, and he has never, and I mean never, loved anyone as much as he loves you.”

“Yeah, Raps,” Cassandra chimed in. “Whatever he thinks he’s doing, he must be doing it for you.”

Even Pascal gave Rapunzel a little affirmative squeak, putting a reassuring paw on her cheek.

“You guys are probably right, but I need to hear it from him,” Rapunzel answered, finally turning towards them.

“We have to hurry,” Adira interrupted. Cass grit her teeth, but forced herself not to comment. “The King has my shadowblade, which has the power to cut these rocks. I know exactly what he’s going to do with it - destroy the Moonstone.”

Cassandra held back a little smile. She was right.

Despite their disagreements, in this moment she felt profound closeness and pride in Eugene. She was glad that for once he decided that Rapunzel didn’t always know best and protecting her life was more important than fulfilling her destiny. If he destroyed the Moonstone, Rapunzel would be safe, and maybe she would finally see that this whole destiny thing was a fraud from the very beginning.

And then maybe she would actually take some interest in the state of Cass’ hand. Maybe they would be able to find a solution to the problem, if they actually started to work together again.

“Pascal, find a way inside, get to Eugene, and don’t let him anywhere near that Stone,” Rapunzel ordered. The chameleon nodded and quickly started to climb the wall in search of some alternative way inside.

Cassandra couldn’t understand it. Pascal was Rapunzel’s first and probably best friend, surely he cared about her well-being. It was bizarre for her that he seemed so unbothered by an obvious threat to Rapunzel’s life and so determined to help her reach this so-called destiny.

“The rest of us need to look for a back entrance or something,” Rapunzel continued, unaware of Cass’ inner turmoil. “This can’t be the only way into the castle.”

“I’m afraid the King has sealed all the entrances to the-” Adira wasn’t able to finish this thought.

Rapunzel’s hair once again lifted in the air and started to glow with Sundrop’s enchanted light. This time it was accompanied by a small earthquake and enormous black rocks shooting from all around them. When Rapunzel managed to hold her braid with both her hands and stop the chaos, the effort literally brought her to her knees. Soon the shaking stopped, and Rapunzel was kneeling on the ground, looking exhausted.

Lance and Adira were still holding onto the existing black rocks to keep their balance when Cassandra knelt next to Rapunzel, looking for any signs of physical injury and ready to lift her up if necessary.

“Raps, are you okay?!” she asked, squeezing her hand.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” the Princess said, smiling at her. She was still somewhat weak and shaken, but she managed to stand on her own accord and even help Cass up, too. “I think we’ll be okay.”

And in this exact moment the ground beneath them split open, making them all fall down. Rapunzel barely managed to use her hair to catch herself as she squeezed Cass’ hand tightly, not letting her fall down. Cassandra was holding onto her best friend for dear life, watching the boiling rocks just beneath them.

“Great!” Cass commented, already done with this situation. “A sewer full of lava.”

“Well, good news: it will lead us into the castle,” Adira chimed in. She and Lance by some miracle managed to catch the black rocks adorning the walls of the sewer, saving themselves from falling into the river of hot molten stone.

Rapunzel managed to swing herself and Cassandra on the nearest huge, flat black rock. They both looked ahead, at the wide river of lava without any visible end. It was one of the least encouraging views Cassandra could possibly imagine, but it looked like that’s what they were stuck with for now.

“Lava sewer it is, then.”

They were jumping between spikes of black rock above a river of boiling lava for what felt like eternity. Though Cass was very agile and used to dealing with pretty extreme conditions and a lot of physical effort, she had to admit that she was growing tired, especially after the thing with walking the tightrope above a chasm and escaping from falling gondola. On top of that, the heat surrounding them was making Cass feel like she was trapped in her metal armor like in a can. She wondered if she was already boiling alive.

The rest of her company also seemed exhausted. Both Rapunzel and Lance looked as if they could collapse any moment now.

“How much further?” Rapunzel asked weakly.

“Another couple hundred yards and we’ll be directly below the throne room,” Adira answered.

As if on cue, the walls of the sewer started to rumble, black rocks once again appearing from all directions. One of them made a huge piece of stone ceiling fall down straight on the place where Lance was standing. Cass managed to throw herself at him just in time to push him out of harm’s way.

“We’d better get to that Moonstone soon,” she urged, sitting on her heels. “I don’t know how much longer we can survive down here!”

“I’m gonna go with not much longer,” Lance added, visibly shaken up by the experience.

“We must turn back and find another way,” Adira announced.

Cass liked the entire situation less and less. If even Adira - overconfident, irresponsible and determined to bring Rapunzel to the Moonstone and, by extension, her doom - was forced to admit that this was a bad idea, they really needed to get out from here.

Just in that moment the rocks started to appear behind them, blocking their path back. Of course.

“We’re trapped!” Cass exclaimed, both exasperated and terrified.

“No!” Rapunzel answered with a delighted smile. “No, we’re not trapped. The rocks are working with us. They’re pushing us toward the Moonstone.”

She approached the very edge of the river of lava with her arms wide open and her hair still glowing. In a matter of seconds, the black rocks formed a safe, convenient path for her.

Cassandra held back a sigh. Of course, she was relieved that they weren’t indeed imprisoned in a deadly sewer full of boiling lava with no way of escaping. On the other hand, she couldn’t help but think that this was the exact type of thing that gave Rapunzel all of her dangerous overconfidence. If there always was some easy, magical solution that helped her avoid the consequences of her choices, how could anyone expect her to be cautious and responsible?

After another couple hundred yards, like Adira said, they found themselves climbing up a huge mass of black rocks, presumably leading inside the castle.

“Hey, guys! I think I see a light ahead!” Rapunzel excitedly announced when they were about two thirds of the way up.

Cassandra raised her head to make sure for herself. Rapunzel was right.

It took them another while to climb to the top. Thankfully, the rocks made a big hole in the wall just behind the metal armor in the hall. Lance was tasked with looking out of it and checking out the area.

“What? What do you see? Is it Eugene?” Rapunzel urged him.

“I think creepy guy’s talking to himself,” Lance explained.

“This is good,” Adira said. “It means he doesn’t suspect we’re here.”

They went out through the hole in the wall, one by one, trying not to make a noise or draw attention to themselves. They all hid behind the armor and the black rocks surrounding it, and they observed King Edmund in the adjoining throne room, still talking to a huge statue of one of his ancestors.

“The Moonstone Chamber is right through those doors,” Adira explained quietly, gesturing towards a huge gate marked with the Brotherhood's symbol.

“Okay,” Rapunzel nodded, out of breath but determined as always. “I’ll need a distraction before I can slip in there,”

“No way!” Cass protested quietly. “You’re not going in alone. Who knows what’s in there?”

“Rapunzel should go in alone,” Adira chimed in. Cassandra had to fight the instinct to throttle this woman with her bare hands. Did she always have to complicate everything? What if Rapunzel decided to put Adira’s judgement before Cass’ one final time? “Only the Sundrop can access the Moonstone’s great power.”

For a short, terrifying moment the Princess seemed to contemplate her words. She gave Cass a quick, unreadable look before making her decision.

“Cass and I will go,” she said in the same unquestionable tone Cassandra knew all too well. She inwardly sighed with relief. “Adira, you’re with Lance. You two run interference against the King so we can slip by.”

Lance didn’t seem as happy about this arrangement as Cass could think he would, considering his long-lasting crush on Adira. She hoped that learning about this woman’s true intentions finally cured Lance from being idiotically enamoured with her.

The King was still turned back from them, looking at the statue on the other side of the room, though he wasn’t talking anymore. Cassandra wasn’t sure if he could hear them approaching.

“Okay, on my count,” Rapunzel ordered. “One, two-”

Edmund turned towards them in a flash. Cass pulled Raps away just in time to save her from being hit by a thrown battle ax.

“My next throw will find its target,” the King growled. “You were warned to stay away.”

“Edmund,” Adira chimed in urgently.

“I have nothing to say to you, Adira!” he interrupted.

The “battle” that followed was perhaps the shortest and most uneven Cass ever took part in. Lance threw himself at the King first, hitting him with all the weight of his body, but the huge man didn’t falter at all. He effortlessly threw Lance across the room. Cassandra tried next, holding her sword with both hands, but she couldn’t even raise it properly before she, too, was knocked down to the ground. Even Adira managed to fight for maybe four seconds or so before King Edmund knocked her down.

“Your Majesty, please…” Cassandra could hear Rapunzel’s pleading voice. She struggled to push herself up, determined not to let her friend get to the Opal alone. The Princess’ hair started to glow with golden light once more. Her braid this time raised horizontally, as if it was showing her the way towards the Moonstone chamber. “The Moonstone knows I’m close. I have to go.”

“No!” Edmund protested, standing in her way. “No one may enter that room.”

“I’m going in, and you don’t want to get in my way!” The Princess’ voice grew more angry and determined.

“You’re not getting past me.”

“Yes, she is!” Eugene entered the scene with Pascal sitting on his arm. “Let her in! She’s the Sundrop!”

Cassandra was never so disappointed in her entire life. Eugene really let Pascal convince him that fulfilling Rapunzel’s destiny as the Sundrop was more important than her life? If they will all survive this ordeal, she was going to have a word with all of them.

“Eugene!” Rapunzel, in total opposition to Cass, seemed delighted by his sudden change of heart.

“Rapunzel, I am so sorry! I just thought-” he started, gently grabbing her arms.

“There’s no time for that,” she interrupted. “We have to get to that Stone! This place is coming down around us!”

“But the Moonstone must be destroyed, son!” the King protested.

“Son?” Rapunzel repeated, delighted by the news.

“Son?” Cassandra echoed, more flabbergasted than anything.

Eugene was the Lost Prince of the Dark Kingdom? She remembered their conversation back in Corona, when Rapunzel was trying to make them communicate better by locking them both away in a palace dungeon. They were both sharing the painful experience of not knowing who their birth parents were and why they abandoned them in the first place.

And now, when both of them found at least one of their long-lost birth parents… Cassandra turned out to be a daughter of Gothel of all people, and Eugene was the Lost Prince of the Dark Kingdom? Her mother abandoned her because she found herself a more useful child, and his father sent him away to protect him in the aftermath of tragedy? How was any of that fair?

Despite her bitterness, Cass quickly found the silver lining of this entire situation. If they will all survive this day, she would never let Eugene live down the fact that his birth name was actually Horace.

“You finally got adopted!” Lance cheered, making Cass roll her eyes.

“Look, I’ll fill you all in later,” Eugene said with a cheeky smile, leading Edmund - his father - away from the entrance to the Moonstone Chamber. “Thumbnail - I’m a prince. Probably.”

Just before Rapunzel could use the opportunity to get into the Moonstone Chamber, the door started to glow with a bright, white light, and their entire surroundings began to violently shake again.

“It can’t be…” King Edmund whispered.

“What is it?” Rapunzel asked, looking around.

“For centuries, my ancestors have sworn to protect this threshold,” Edmund explained solemnly. “And now, their spirits have arisen to uphold that oath.”

The spirits of past Kings and Queens emerged from their statues and immediately surrounded them, ready for the fight.

“Not necessarily how I imagined meeting your family,” Rapunzel told Eugene.

The fight, though not as uneven as the earlier “battle” with King Edmund, was long and exhausting. Every time someone from their team managed to defeat one of the ghosts, the spirit was returning through the statue once more. Even though they had support of Maximus and Fidella, who somehow managed to get inside just in time to join in (they had Shorty with them, too, but he wasn’t much help during the fight), the situation started to seem hopeless. Eventually, the only one still standing on his feet was Lance.

He was standing tall, determined to see this to the end.

“Okay, Lance, buddy. I think we learned something today: everyone chooses their own fate.”

He quickly grabbed Adira’s shadowblade and used it to destroy one of the statues in one swift motion.

“Lance, you’re a genius and it’s the first and last time I’ll ever say that!” Eugene exclaimed.

After Lance’s discovery the fight began once more, and this time the tables have turned. Working together, they managed to use the shadowblade to destroy all of the statues of the past rulers but one.

Unfortunately, when Eugene was on his way to destroy it, too, he tripped and fell. Everyone held their breath, terrified, when the ghost vanished into thin air.

Cass turned towards the statue. On its arm stood King Edmund with the shadowblade in his hand.

“Our family is just awful,” he commented dryly as the head of the statue fell down.

Unfortunately, it ended up knocking down another head, which blocked the entrance to the Moonstone Chamber.

Lance, Maximus, Fidella, Adira and Edmund managed to lift the huge piece of stone just enough to let Rapunzel, Eugene with Pascal on his shoulder and Cassandra crawl inside.

“It’s all up to you now,” the King said, looking back at Rapunzel.

“No,” she corrected, looking at both Eugene and Cass with a bright smile. “It’s up to us.”

Cassandra looked away. It seemed that, since everyone else wanted Rapunzel to risk everything for one reason or another, everything was up to her now.

Chapter Text

After crawling into the Moonstone’s Chamber Cassandra, Rapunzel and Eugene took a long moment to catch their breaths. The events of the day were finally getting through to them, and they all knew that the most important part was still ahead of them.

When Cass finally gathered the strength to look up, she was met with a mesmerizing view. Predictably, the entire room was made out of the black rocks. The only object lighting up the darkness of the Chamber was the Moonstone itself - a surprisingly small Opal emitting beautiful, silver-blue light, waiting on the pedestal in a little cage of its own making. Cass immediately understood why so many people before her tried to take this Stone for themselves, even if they were well-aware how dangerous it was. The Moonstone was shining with a seductive, almost hypnotizing aura. For a second she wondered if she would be able to resist it if she wasn’t trying to protect Rapunzel.

“We’ve made it, guys,” the Princess whispered, equally mesmerized.

Exactly in that moment her hair once again started to glow with intense golden light. All seventy feet of it raised vertically above Rapunzel’s head. Maybe a second later, all of the rocks in the Chamber reacted to the Sundrop’s presence. They started to shine with their own blue light and pointed in the direction of the cage, showing Rapunzel the way towards the Moonstone.

Rapunzel stood at the edge of another seemingly bottomless chasm that was separating her from the Opal. As soon as she raised her feet, the black rocks started to form a convenient path for her. Cass had to stop herself from rolling her eyes. Of course.

Cassandra and Eugene looked at each other, and with a final nod they both followed Rapunzel along the newly-formed path.

Just when they were close enough to the Moonstone to see it clearly, Rapunzel decided to turn back to Cass and give her a bright smile. Cassandra looked away.

“Look, I know these past few months haven’t been easy for us,” Rapunzel began, taking Cass’ hands into her own, “but I wanna thank you, for everything.”

You will thank me later, Cassandra thought, though she didn’t believe it in the slightest.

When Rapunzel closed her in a hug, Cass stiffened. She couldn’t bring herself to raise her hands and hug her friend back. Not now. Not after everything that happened - and before everything she intended to do.

“Okay, Rapunzel,” she said urgently. “It’s time.”

The Princess thankfully let her out of the embrace. She turned to Eugene, and he took her hand in his own.

“This is it, Rapunzel,” he announced softly. “Now go get your destiny.”

Cassandra did her best not to react to this statement. Go get your destiny… Without any regard for her life, without as much as a second thought…

She took a deep breath. It wasn’t the time for that. She will have a chance to have a talk with Eugene when it will be over.

“I love you,” Rapunzel whispered. She kissed his hand and hugged it to her cheek. He answered by kissing her on the forehead, and Cass had to suppress a grimace of disgust.

It was just because she was angry at both of them for treating the entire situation so lightly, she told herself. It was not the time to dwell on the reasons why she hated to watch displays of affection between these two so much.

Thankfully, Rapunzel took her sweet time with reaching for the Moonstone. The cage dissolved into nothing the moment she raised her hand, of course. When the Opal levitated out of its little prison, Rapunzel took a few long seconds to just stare at it in awe. It was exactly enough time for Cassandra to run past both Eugene and Rapunzel before they could even register what was happening and grab the Moonstone herself. It was an ideal size to close in her fist, preventing the Princess from taking it from her.

“Cassandra?! What are you doing?!” Rapunzel yelled, shocked, as the seventy feet of her hair stopped glowing and fell down into the bottomless pit.

“I’m doing what I have to do,” Cass growled through her teeth.

The next half a minute was a paralyzing mix of sensations, unlike anything Cassandra ever experienced before. It was undoubtedly painful, so painful that she couldn’t help but to scream, even though she was experienced in hiding her suffering. She felt as if every nerve in her body was turned to ice, beginning with her decaying hand squeezing the Moonstone, going through her veins straight to her heart and onward, to her entire body. This was cold like she never experienced before - not when diving in the freezing water during her training, not even during Zhan Tiri’s blizzard. She felt as if her entire body was turning into one giant ice statue. But it was also, somehow, the most satisfying feeling she experienced in her entire life. It was just like she imagined the state of pure ecstasy.

After a while that felt both infinitely short and infinitely long, everything ended. Cassandra finally noticed the changes that her transformation caused, both to her and to everything around. Rapunzel and Eugene were trying to get up from the floor, probably knocked over by the shockwave created by the Stone; new black rocks were covering her surroundings; the Moonstone itself was now resting just above her heart, even though she didn’t remember placing it there; her metal armor got replaced by the black-rock-made one, with a blue gauntlet protecting her injured hand. Most importantly, though, Cassandra was still alive, and if not alive, at least not dead. She didn’t feel pain anymore, not even the dull ache in her hand that accompanied her since the accident. The Moonstone had transformed her, she was sure of it, and she already liked the new version way better.

She couldn’t help but laugh with relief.

“Cassandra?” Rapunzel’s devastated voice cut through Cass’ thoughts. She hated how shocked the Princess sounded. The look on her face wasn’t just distress - it was also betrayal, and something that almost looked like… fear. Eugene, standing by her side, was partially shielding her with his own body. His gaze was more sharp and furious than Cass has seen from him ever before. He was glaring at her as if she just committed the worst atrocity in the history of humankind.

Cassandra grit her teeth.

“I tried to warn you, Rapunzel,” she said quietly. She was aware that both a grimace on her face and the tone of her voice revealed all of her own long-suppressed pain and anger. She didn’t care anymore. If Rapunzel wasn’t going to listen to everything she had to say now, there really was nothing that could save their friendship. “And if you weren’t going to listen to my warnings, you gave me no other choice.”

“Cass, what… What are you talking about?”

Cassandra laughed mockingly, though it was a hint of bitterness in her voice. She couldn’t believe that Rapunzel was really asking her this question.

“I know you’re not listening to me for quite some time now, but I thought you were at least listening to what your new best friend has to say,” she said acidly. The way Rapunzel flinched at this statement gave her more satisfaction than she could ever expect. She smirked. “Don’t you remember what Adira told you just hours ago? She is sure that bringing the Sundrop to the Moonstone would neutralize its threat, but she doesn’t know what would happen to you if you touched it. She was ready and willing to risk, maybe sacrifice, your life just to get rid of this thing.” She briefly gestured to the Opal, now placed securely on her chest. “I am not going to let you kill yourself in the name of some imagined destiny. I don’t care what some ancient enchanted monkey told you.”

Rapunzel gasped out loud. She clearly wasn’t aware that Cassandra knew about Demanitus’ “prophecy”.

“If you suspect someone of treachery, you really shouldn’t talk about that in that person’s presence,” Cass commented with a bitter smile. “But it’s not the thing that cemented my decision. I don’t care what Demanitus and Adira think of me. I don’t care if you think that you don’t need me to keep you safe or that you expect me to be okay with repeatedly risking your life just because you're going to be the Queen someday.”

Now Rapunzel was just standing there, seemingly petrified, as Cassandra threw her own words back at her. Even Eugene, who was staring at her with such anger at the beginning, didn’t look so certain anymore. Good. Maybe they at least began to actually listen to her.

“I was right every time so far, Rapunzel, even if you were always too blind to ever notice it,” Cassandra continued her rant. “I told you not to drink this enchanted tea that turned us into birds back in that forest; I told you not to enter the Great Tree; I told you not to use the Decay Incantation again; I told you not to walk into The House of Yesterday’s Tomorrow. You never listened to me, and you refused to acknowledge that your own royal decisions are putting us all at risk time and time again. You were lucky so many times that you took for granted that another miraculous coincidence would save your life this time, too. I am not going to risk it.”

She took a deep breath, exhausted by letting all of this out. It did feel good to finally tell Rapunzel everything she was trying to suppress for all these months on the road. What’s more, this time the Princess didn’t interrupt her with another condescending remark. For once, she was actually listening to the things Cass had to say. All it took was stealing one of the most powerful magical objects on Earth from under her nose.

For a moment a tense silence filled the air of the Chamber. Rapunzel and Eugene seemed to be processing Cass’ outburst, and she was trying to calm her breath, somewhat nervously waiting for their reaction.

“Cass, I…” Rapunzel was the one to finally break the silence. “I never meant to… I didn’t know you felt this way,” she started meekly. “I never meant to hurt you like that, and I didn’t realize that you felt as if I was rejecting you. You are my best friend, Cass, and I do trust you with my life. But you have to understand… After all these years, after being locked in the tower for my entire childhood and how overprotective my dad was when I returned to Corona… This journey was my first opportunity to finally feel free, you know? At least I could decide something for myself, and… and I took it way too far. I am so sorry.”

Cassandra could hardly believe her own ears. Rapunzel was… actually apologizing to her? She didn’t expect this in the slightest. As far as she knew, the Princess hardly ever admitted to being wrong, let alone apologized for her actions. Cass felt all the fury slowly leaving her body, replaced by sadness… and something she wanted to believe to be hope.

“I am sorry, too, Raps,” she whispered after a while. “I know you went through a lot, and I didn’t want this to come this far. After everything, I just felt that you wouldn’t listen to me again, and… and I was so scared that it would be one time too many.”

“You were probably right,” Rapunzel admitted quietly. She was staring at the floor now, and she looked like she was doing her best to hold back tears. “I really didn’t consider the danger that comes with taking the Moonstone. But…” She suddenly looked up, startled by another realization. “Adira said that the Moonstone destroyed everybody who tried to take it so far. It even mutilated Eugene’s dad, who was closer to it than any other living person. How did you know you would survive it?”

“I didn’t,” Cass admitted, shrugging. She was doing her best to act nonchalant about it, but she felt a lump forming in her throat. She knew it would come to that eventually. “It’s not like it’s the first time I ever risked my life for you.” She raised her right hand for a moment. Before Rapunzel could interrupt her with another tearful apology, she lowered her hand and continued. She could as well get this finally over with. “But I guess I had a way better chance than the ones that tried before me. I don’t know… Maybe the potential to use magic is something that’s inherited, or… or maybe it’s because Gothel was using the Sundrop’s power for centuries before she gave birth to me.”

Her words were followed by a long, awful moment of silence. Rapunzel and Eugene were, once again, trying to process the implications of Cassandra’s words. Meanwhile, she was looking at the floor, trying to plan her next move. She found it entirely possible that everything will collapse around her once again, that Rapunzel and Eugene will decide that she can’t be trusted after all, that she wanted all the power for herself and the guise of wanting to protect Rapunzel was a cunning lie on her part, and then…

“Cass,” Rapunzel’s voice, though still hoarse from the tears she didn’t want to shed, was warm and comforting. “I don't know what happened to remind you about this, but… I’m so sorry. I want you to know it doesn’t change anything between us. This awful woman was not a mother and never deserved to be one. You are my best friend, Cassandra. I love you, no matter what.”

“I love you, too, Raps,” Cass said, finally letting a single tear flow down her cheek. Rapunzel also started crying, and Cassandra would completely lose herself in this moment of genuine understanding and connection, if Raps didn’t take a step forward, as if she intended to hug her once more.

“No, stay back!” Cass ordered abruptly. The dread seemed to freeze the blood in her veins all over again, and a few huge black rocks shot from the ground all around her. Rapunzel stopped in her tracks, seeming surprised and a little offended. “I don’t know how it works, Raps,” Cassandra added a bit more calmly, now that the immediate danger was over. “Touching the Moonstone could be dangerous for you, remember? I really think we shouldn’t touch each other before we decipher that stupid scroll and figure out how to control this whole mess.”

“You… might be right,” Rapunzel nodded, disappointed. “Air hug?”

She made the same awkward gesture that Cass remembered from the beginning of their relationship, when Raps was very clingy and affection craving and Cass really didn’t want to be touched by her. She couldn’t help but smile and replicate it.

“Air hug,” she agreed, shaking her head.

At that moment the doors to the Chamber opened wide. Lance, Adira, Edmund and the horses finally unblocked the entrance to the Chamber, and they went inside to see what’s happening.

Cassandra immediately straightened. She didn’t have time to think this confrontation through. She wasn’t sure if it would lead to a fight or not and who would be on her side if it came to it.

“So, what did we miss?” Lance asked joyfully, opening his arms. “Oh,” he added, taking in the entire scene. “You actually did it.” He seemed impressed, maybe mildly surprised, but there was no trace of shock, horror or anger in his tone.

“Wait, you were in on it?!” Eugene asked incredulously.

“Of course not,” Lance rolled his eyes. “But I heard Cass talking about not believing in destiny and everyone choosing their own fate, and I saw her expression when Adira said that she intended to risk Rapunzel’s life to get rid of the Moonstone this entire time.” He gave the woman a loathing stare. It was obvious that his crush on her was over for good. Cassandra smiled. “Didn’t take a genius to figure this one out.”

“How did you survive?” King Edmund chimed in before either Adira or Eugene could say anything.

“I’m not sure,” Cass shrugged. “Maybe I just have a natural talent for sorcery.”

Neither Edmund nor Adira seemed to appreciate her dismissive response. However, while the King of the Dark Kingdom was just staring at her in obvious disbelief, his former soldier decided to take immediate action.

Adira drew her sword and charged at Cassandra, aiming for the head. She swiftly avoided Rapunzel, Eugene and Lance, who were all trying to stop her in her tracks, and used her shadowblade to destroy the rocks that the Opal formed in front of Cass to shield her. Cassandra instinctively raised her armored hands above her head, blocking the blow.

“Release the Moonstone, Short Hair!” Adira barked at her, not loosening the grip on her sword. “You don’t know what you’re dealing with!”

“Neither do you!” Cass shouted back.

She wasn’t really planning her next move. It seemed like the Moonstone accepted her as its new Master and was now doing everything it could to protect her from danger. Before she could think about what to do now, the Opal created an abrupt shockwave that sent Adira flying across the room. She dropped her sword at Cassandra’s feet as her body flew to the other side of the Chamber with a great speed and then crashed against the rocks, probably shattering some of her bones in the process. Adira immediately lost consciousness.

Cass, acting on instinct, picked up the shadowblade from the ground. It seemed right that her new weapon of choice was the indestructible sword made of the black rocks that were now covering her entire body.

She looked around the room, as if waiting for another danger to approach. She was just attacked without warning or hesitation, by a person who had full intention of killing her. It was also a person who everyone in this room was associated with; one that most of them were calling a friend just a few hours before. Cass was on high alert, ready to defend herself.

“Cass, it’s alright,” Rapunzel said gently. She took a few steps towards her, but kept a safe distance. “I promise, no one here wants to hurt you. I am sorry. You were right from the very beginning. I should never trust Adira.”

These words, the ones she was so desperate to hear for the last months, made Cassandra’s nerves calm down, just a little bit. She once again looked around the room, this time actually focusing on the people surrounding her. Rapunzel was still looking at her with an encouraging, caring expression. Eugene, while way less enthusiastic about the entire situation, looked more worried or maybe exasperated than anything else; he surely wasn’t going to attack her now. Lance was quite unsuccessfully trying to hide his unease. Though he looked shaken up by Adira’s attack and Cass’ reaction, he seemed to understand that none of it was Cass’ decision. Edmund still looked just perplexed that the Moonstone not only didn’t kill her, but now it was also protecting her. Not one of her companions looked like they were going to attack her now.

Cassandra took a deep breath and looked at the shadowblade in her hand. Then she glanced at Adira’s bloody, unmoving form.

“She tried to kill both of us,” she said quietly, tightening her grip on the sword.

“I know that, Cass,” Rapunzel said urgently. “She wanted to sacrifice both of our lives for what she believes to be the greater good. I’m not trying to justify what she did. But please, you know you’re better than this.”

Cassandra sighed. She wasn’t sure she was better than this, not really; but the sight of Rapunzel’s pleading eyes was enough to hold her back for now.

“Take her from here before I change my mind,” she said through her teeth. The Moonstone’s magic quickly created a scabbard on her back. She sheathed her new sword and looked away. “Lock her in the dungeon or something. Then we can sit down and talk.”

“Yeah, that’s a good idea,” Eugene remarked, while Lance and Edmund took Adira out of Cass’ sight without another word. Neither of them seemed willing to provoke her when she was in that state. “We can talk about making hasty decisions that could lead to a tragedy without consulting anyone about it first.”

“Or we can talk about how someone decided to risk his beloved girlfriend’s life in the name of a destiny that a traitor made him believe in, because a monkey and a chameleon told him so,” Cass commented without missing a bit.

Eugene didn’t answer that, taken aback by Cassandra’s accusatory tone. Meanwhile Pascal, still sitting on his shoulder, squicked loudly, offended by her words.

“Yeah,” Rapunzel sighed awkwardly. “It sounds like we have a lot to talk about.”

Chapter Text

A few minutes later, while Edmund and Lance were busy making sure that Adira wouldn’t bother them anymore, Eugene led Cassandra and Rapunzel out of the Moonstone Chamber and back to the dining room, the one with the huge portrait of the King and Queen of the Dark Kingdom right above a giant fireplace.

“Your parents, huh?” Cass murmured, giving Eugene a sad look.

It was still so difficult to deal with. Cassandra knew that, objectively, Eugene was in an awful situation. For all they knew, his home Kingdom was destroyed and his mother died when he was an infant as a result of his own father’s disastrous, desperate action. Then, he was sent away by said father, he grew up in the orphanage, and then he became the infamous thief, Flynn Rider. If he hadn’t met Rapunzel, he could just as well end up hanged for his crimes, which were born mostly from his desperate circumstances. His situation wasn’t by any means something to be jealous of.

Still, he had a father who seemed to actually care about him. He wasn’t abandoned because his parents decided he wasn’t useful anymore - he was sent away for his own safety. He wasn’t a son of some universally hated criminal - he was the Lost Prince of a mysterious, mythical Kingdom.

Cassandra, meanwhile, despite all of Rapunzel’s understanding and reassurance, still had a hard time dealing with her own parentage. She could hardly imagine anyone having it worse than her in this regard.

“Yeah,” Eugene nodded, avoiding her gaze. “My mother…”

“I know,” Cassandra cut him off, her voice far more gentle than she expected from herself. “Adira told us everything. I… I’m so sorry.”

“It looks like we both got the short end of a stick here, huh?” he asked, giving her a hesitant smile.

Cassandra snorted, but smiled back.

“It looks like we did.”

She could sense the underlying awkwardness in Eugene’s expression. After all, technically he was the person who killed Cassandra’s own mother. She knew the story - Gothel stabbed Eugene with a dagger, Rapunzel promised that she will willingly go with the old hag if only she will let her heal him with her magic, and Eugene used what little strength he had left to cut Rapunzel’s hair, killing Gothel as a result. She heard the story of the Lost Princess too many times to count: from Rapunzel herself trying to process her trauma, from Eugene bragging about his own heroism, and even from other people making performances out of the entire thing.

Obviously, Eugene would never, ever regret what he did, and he most certainly didn’t feel sorry about Cassandra’s so-called mother’s demise. Still, it looked like talking about their dead mothers with Cass made him somewhat uncomfortable.

Cassandra, however, didn’t hold a grudge about that. She didn’t feel like Gothel was her mother at all. Of course, she was hurt and angry that after all this time of wondering who her biological parents were and why did they abandon her, this turned out to be the answer. She was mad at her father for hiding the truth from her all these years. The memories of her early life that resurfaced after the House of Yesterday's Tomorrow were painful and traumatic, and she knew she would have a hard time dealing with them.

Still, she didn’t feel like she lost her mother the day Rapunzel finally escaped from the tower. She didn’t even lose her the day the Princess was kidnapped. As far as she was concerned, she never had a mother at all.

If anything, she was grateful that Eugene decided to cut Rapunzel’s hair and killed Gothel in the process, even if he didn't know that would be the direct result of his action. That was the only right thing to do at the moment.

Despite all of that, she wasn’t sure she was ready to share this moment of connection and understanding with Eugene. Not yet, anyway. He knew what happened to his mother. He knew that the last attempt to take and destroy the Moonstone ended in the catastrophe that tore apart his family and destroyed his Kingdom. And still, he was willing to let Rapunzel make the very same mistake… because Adira told him that it was her destiny.

Before Cassandra could say any of this out loud, they got interrupted by Owl flying into the chamber.

“Hoo?” He looked at her incredulously.

It was just now when Cass realized that she hadn't seen him ever since they fell into this lava-filled sewer a few hours earlier, and she didn’t have a chance to discuss her impromptu decision with him.

“Don’t look at me like that,” she grumbled somewhat defensively. “You heard what that bitch said about Raps trying to take the Moonstone. Do you really think I should let her kill herself in the name of her destiny or something? I had no other choice.”

“Hoo,” he commented, visibly calmed down by her reasoning, but still somewhat disapproving of her actions.

Cassandra rolled her eyes. Of course Owl was still trying to advocate for talking about their issues openly instead of trying to avoid them and making hasty decisions by herself, just like he did during the Wand of Oblivium ordeal.

“And do you seriously think she would listen to me this time?” she snapped at him.

Then she looked at Rapunzel and she immediately regretted her words. The Princess was looking at the floor and fidgeting with her hands, clearly ashamed of herself. It was a weird sight, to say the least, especially after all of these months of dealing with Rapunzel’s growing over-confidence and cheekiness. However, it didn’t bring Cass any satisfaction she could expect. Instead, Cass herself started to feel guilty. Rapunzel was sincerely trying. She acknowledged her mistakes, she was willing to talk this out and actually listen this time, and she even sincerely apologized for what happened. Cassandra really shouldn’t try to bring her down even more.

Eugene gave her a weird, half-reproachful, half-pleading look. It only made Cass feel worse.

She forced herself to take a deep breath.

“Okay, listen, Owl,” she said, forcing herself to keep her cool. “We already talked about it a little. Raps understands why I did that, and we agreed to seriously talk about this and actually listen to each other this time. That’s what you wanted anyway, right? There’s no reason to panic. We finally have the whole thing somewhat under control.”

“Hoo,” Owl nodded. He still looked somewhat hesitant about the outcome, but he was happy that they were at least willing to behave like adults for once. Cass rolled her eyes again. “Hoo?” he added, changing the subject.

“What do you mean why am I so blue?” Cassandra asked, surprised. She looked down at her body, now protected by a black-rock armor. True, her new attire did have some blue elements, most distinctly the blue gauntlet protecting her right hand and of course the blue-silver stone shimmering with faint light on her chest, but the armor was still mostly black. “That’s just the black rocks.”

“Uhm, Cass, you should probably look into a mirror,” Eugene chimed in.

Cassandra frowned at him, but she looked in the giant, dusty mirror on one of the walls.

“Oh,” was the only comment she could manage upon the first glance.

Now she understood why Owl was so surprised by her appearance. The Moonstone not only gave her the new attire. It also entirely changed her looks. Her hair and eyes turned unnatural, fluorescent blue. They even seemed to emit a faint, enchanted light, just as the Moonstone itself did. On top of that, though Cassandra had always been pale, now the color of her skin almost resembled marble. Combined with her black-rock spiked armor, Cassandra had to admit that she looked almost terrifying.

She kind of liked that.

“Yeah,” Eugene nodded. “I thought you looked scary enough before, but the Moonstone took it to a whole other level.”

“Eugene!” Rapunzel elbowed him.

“Don’t worry, Raps, it’s fine,” Cass said with a smirk. “He does have a point, you know? I kinda like the new look, anyway. And if it scares Prince Horace here, it’s just an added bonus for me.” Eugene groaned painfully at the sound of his birth name. Before he could counter with some witty remark, Rapunzel started to giggle quietly, covering her mouth with a hand.

Cassandra couldn’t help but smile. Since deciding to take the Moonstone, she wasn’t sure if she would hear Rapunzel’s laughter ever again. She wasn’t even aware how much she would miss it.

“Well, it’s good to know that at least my fear entertains you, Sunshine,” Eugene commented, raising a brow. The fond look he gave his girlfriend made it clear that he didn’t hold her reaction against her at all.

“I’m sorry, Eugene,” Rapunzel said, still giggling. “It’s just… I never thought it would be so nice to hear you and Cass bickering, you know? It just feels so normal.”

“Well, of course,” Cass chimed in with a grin. “Moonstone or not, making fun of Prince Horace here is always great entertainment.”

“We’re back, everyone!” Lance announced cheerfully before Eugene could think of a response. He looked relaxed, even happy with the turn of events. Meanwhile, King Edmund’s eyes were darting between Rapunzel, Cassandra and Eugene warily. “We got rid of the problem and now we can have an actual meeting to discuss all the important stuff.”

Cass raised a brow and smirked to herself. Lance really kept positively surprising her time and time again today.

First, he assured her he was on her side when Eugene was suspecting her of treason; then, he figured out her intentions when everyone else was going to risk Rapunzel’s life in the name of her destiny, and he didn’t say anything, just letting Cass to do what she thought was best; and now, when he got to know that Adira was going to sacrifice Rapunzel this entire time, he seemed to be entirely over his stupid crush.

Cassandra never suspected she would appreciate Lance’s friendship so much.

A short while later, Cassandra, Rapunzel with Pascal on her shoulder, Eugene, Lance and Edmund were all sitting at the table together. Maximus and Fidella were standing nearby, and Owl perched himself on one of the black rocks sticking horizontally from the wall, all three of them carefully listening to the conversation that was about to take place. Cassandra wasn’t exactly sure where Shorty went, but he was probably just wandering around, as usual.

“Okay,” Rapunzel began, taking a deep breath. “So, we all agree that we need to have a serious talk about everything that happened, right? I think the best way to do it is if everyone will have a chance to speak without anyone else interrupting, and then we can have a discussion about what to do next. Everyone agrees?”

Everyone nodded, though some members of the group were clearly more enthusiastic about the idea than others.

Cass braced herself. She knew she would be the first one to have to explain everything from her point of view, and she wasn’t sure how to even start. She wasn’t used to her friends, or anyone, really, actually listening to her. As much as her opinion being constantly ignored stung, now that she had a chance to be truly heard for once, she was far more nervous than she anticipated.

“Alright,” Rapunzel said, forcing an awkward smile. “I think you should be the one to speak first, Cass. I promise we’ll listen to you this time.”

“Yeah, I guess so.” Cass nodded reluctantly. “And… Thanks for that, Raps. It means a lot to me, because… It really sucked how you all never really listened to what I wanted to say, especially since the start of this whole journey. I was just trying to keep us out of trouble as much as possible. You said that you don’t need anyone to protect you, and it made me feel so useless, you know? It’s the main reason I even went with you in the first place, to keep you safe, and I couldn’t keep you safe when you kept ignoring my warnings over and over again. Like about trusting Adira, and about spending the night in the Great Tree…” Cass clenched her first. Even though the pain was now entirely gone, she was quite certain that the memories of that horrible night will haunt her nightmares forever. “And about using the decay spell again. You decided to do this, even if you knew what it did with you the first time, because you couldn’t give me a few seconds to reach that spear. And later, you kept insisting that what happened to my hand was partly my own fault, because you told me you had it under control and all that, but when I close my eyes I can still see you reciting that awful incantation, with your eyes and hair turned completely black, and the Great Tree collapsing all around you. And do you remember what you said when I was begging you to let go? You said I can’t control it. Who knows what would happen to you, and to everything around you, if I didn’t touch you back then?”

“Cass, I…” Rapunzel said quietly, clearly trying to hold back tears.

“You promised to listen without interrupting this time,” Cassandra cut her off, looking down at her hands. She wasn’t sure if she would be able to continue her monologue while looking in her best friend’s eyes, now so full of shame and regret.

“You’re right,” Rapunzel admitted softly. “I’m sorry.”

Cassandra took another deep breath, trying to calm her nerves. It was so difficult to talk about everything that hurt her about Rapunzel’s actions without sounding too accusatory, but she was willing to try. She knew Rapunzel herself was trying her best, and it meant more than she could express.

“And then there was the ordeal with the House of Yesterday’s Tomorrow,” she continued, trying to keep her voice steady. “I tried to warn all of you that we shouldn’t walk in there, and you didn’t even let me finish before going inside, and later I tried to talk with you privately, Rapunzel, and you brushed me off once again. We all know the insanity that happened after that, with all the evil doppelgangers and the time reversing spinning top. Then, when you disappeared on us, we split up to cover more ground, and… Behind one of the doors there was a female voice calling for me, so I went inside. I met a weird little ghost there. It looked kinda like a little girl, but her dress was almost ancient, and she had a really strange accent. She introduced herself as a friend. She was the one who showed me the night… the night Gothel kidnapped you. Then, she went on trying to convince me that you took everything from me and that the only way to get even is to take your destiny away from you. I won’t lie, it was a bit tempting at first, but I thought about that for a while and I decided that life with Gothel of all things is not something to be jealous about, thank you very much. Besides, only an idiot could trust some suspicious little ghost-thing met in a demonic trap. Also, I know I’m changing the subject for a bit now, but do you guys have any idea what this entire thing was about?”

“Uh,” Rapunzel chuckled awkwardly, rubbing the back of her neck with one hand. “Yeah, about that… You were more right than you know about not wanting to stay in the House of Yesterday’s Tomorrow. This ghost-thing you’ve met there, well… It was probably Zhan Tiri.”

“Zhan Tiri?” Cassandra repeated, flabbergasted. “Like, the ancient evil warlock who caused that blizzard in Corona, then one of his - or hers - or whatever disciples hypnotised you and Lance and all these other people and threw me and Eugene off the cliff, and who corrupted the Great Tree in the first place? That Zhan Tiri?”

“Yeah,” Rapunzel nodded, still smiling awkwardly. “It turned out that the House was just another trap and the host was one of Zhan Tiri’s disciples. They planned to trap the power of the Sundrop there to revive him - or her, I’m not sure anymore - and it’s a long story that I’d love to tell you some other time, but the point is I managed to escape in the last moment before they could complete the ritual, so it’s very possible that Zhan Tiri was able to take a form of a ghost and communicate with you in the meantime.”

“Are you guys insane?!” Cassandra yelled at them, for a moment completely forgetting that it was supposed to be a peaceful discussion. She was so mad that she didn’t even care about a small lightning erupting from the Moonstone in response to her anger, or about the fact that all her companions instinctively leaned back from her, or about Owl’s another reproachful look. “Why didn’t you tell me that?! I’m not even talking about the fact that we should never go into that cursed shell in the first place, but didn’t you think it was something important to share with me?!”

“Well, you didn’t tell us about your little adventure with your new friend, either,” Eugene said defensively.

“This is different!” Cassandra snarled. “It was something personal, okay? Can you imagine what could happen if I actually listened to her, not knowing who it really is? It would be a disaster!”

“Uhm, maybe we should go back to discussing the Moonstone for now,” Lance chimed in hesitantly. “We’ll have a lot of time to discuss Zhan Tiri later.”

“Oh, we will discuss it for sure,” Cass said, trying to calm down a bit. The knowledge that she was so close to walking right into Zhan Tiri’s trap was very hard to just gloss over, but she tried her best for the sake of this conversation. “Especially since we can’t know if Zhan Tiri was able to regain some kind of physical form and she’s just waiting in the shadows to cause trouble again. But, yeah, you’re probably right, that's a conversation for later. You already know most of the rest of it, though. Adira told us that she was going to sacrifice your life to neutralize Moonstone’s threat. You seemed to be on board with that plan because of your destiny, and I knew I couldn’t allow it, so I decided to take the Moonstone myself. Honestly, I didn’t have any plans for what I would do with it later. I wasn’t even sure if I would survive it at all. I just wanted to protect you, no matter if you think that you need me to keep you safe or not.”

“You were risking your life to save me?” Rapunzel asked incredulously. Even though Cassandra was stubbornly keeping her head down to avoid Princess' gaze, she knew that Rapunzel wasn’t trying to stop her tears anymore.

“Sure,” she shrugged. “After all, that’s how I injured my hand.”

She looked up at Eugene, not even trying to conceal her anger and disappointment in him. He held her gaze for a few seconds, but eventually he looked away, seemingly ashamed.

“So I guess it’s my turn to talk now, huh?” he asked almost sheepishly.

Cassandra raised a brow. This tone was something she didn’t expect from this overconfident, smug, annoying guy. Maybe he really was starting to finally understand.

“I think it is,” she nodded. “I would love to hear how the fact that I risked my life to save Rapunzel is somehow the indication of my alleged treacherous tendencies, and why on Earth were you thinking it’s a good idea for Rapunzel to try and take the Moonstone, especially since you know what it did to your own family. We’re all listening.”

Cass knew that her tone and her words were far more brutal than they probably should be, considering this was supposed to be an honest conversation to clear the air between them. In fact, she was being almost cruel, reminding Eugene of the tragic death of his mother and accusing him of trying to submit Rapunzel to the same fate. Still, she was too angry to care. She was, once again, the only person who took the situation seriously. If she didn’t take the Moonstone before Rapunzel had a chance to, it could all end in a tragedy, and in her eyes Fitzherbert would be very much complicit in it.

“Now, I understand why you’re doing what you’re doing, Cass,” Eugene started with a sigh. “I get that you’re genuinely worried about Rapunzel, and I suppose we could avoid some trouble we got ourselves into if we actually listened to you. But I still think I understand Rapunzel’s perspective better, and I’m trying to do what’s best for her, too. When I first met her, she was living in that horrible tower with your… with Gothel,” he corrected himself quickly, as if he intended to reciprocate Cassandra’s earlier malicious words but thought better of it. She was grateful for that. “You should’ve seen the look on her face when she got to touch grass for the first time in her life, when she finally got to be free, even just for a day. And even after she escaped Gothel and got to live in the palace, she still couldn’t do whatever she wanted. You know how overprotective her father is. I mean, I kinda understand him, Rapunzel got kidnapped from under his nose when she was a baby and he didn’t want to lose her the second time, but still… he got as far as to lock her in a tower. You have to admit, that’s as twisted and cruel as can be, and I’m sure he did this because he was genuinely trying to protect her. So I promised myself I would never hurt her like that. I would never try to restrict her because I’m worried about her safety. After all, she’s more than capable of taking care of herself.”

Cassandra looked at Rapunzel, who was currently sitting in her chair with her head bowed, as if she was trying to avoid everyone’s gazes. It was clear that the entire conversation was costing her so much, even if she didn’t get the chance to present her own perspective yet.

Cass understood all too well where Eugene was coming from. After all, she was the one who risked everything to sneak Rapunzel out for an adventure that fateful night before the coronation, even if it could cost her everything. She saw Rapunzel’s excitement mixed with guilt when she temporarily lost her memory back in that abandoned village and she thought she was touching grass for the first time again. She understood this desperate need for freedom to make her own choices way better than they imagined.

She felt as some part of her anger softened, giving place to understanding.

“We believed that taking the Moonstone was Rapunzel’s destiny during this entire journey,” Eugene continued. “We got away from so many dangerous situations thanks to her, right? And then, Demanitus himself said that Rapunzel had to reunite the Sundrop and the Moonstone to summon the Ultimate Power, and that all I have to do is to have faith in her. And it worked! Her hair shielded us from that giant stone monstrosity and destroyed a big part of the labyrinth. I didn’t have a reason not to trust Demanitus, so when he gave me the prophecy… I guess I panicked a bit. I didn’t consider myself as a possible traitor, of course, and I have known Lance for all my life. Shorty isn’t even an option, obviously. So, you were the only available candidate. Now I know it wasn’t fair of me, and I’m sorry for saying that. I just didn’t consider that Adira was technically a part of our team, too.”

“You also didn’t consider that Demanitus could have the exact same motivation as Adira,” Cassandra said gloomily. The look of shock on both Eugene and Rapunzel’s faces told her that they indeed didn’t think about that at all. “Demanitus probably knows more than anyone about this stuff, right? And instead of giving you any clear instructions, he gave you a scroll in a language none of us can understand, some vague tips about just trusting that everything will be okay if you believe hard enough, and a so-called prophecy that was clearly intended to destroy the trust between us. Don’t you think he knew what he was doing?”

Rapunzel hid her face in her hands, clearly devastated as the puzzle pieces finally fit together. Eugene, on the other hand, was sitting there for a few seconds, looking as if he was struck by lightning. Lance’s eyes kept nervously darting between the three of them.

“That would explain everything,” when Eugene finally spoke, his voice was filled with disgust Cassandra had yet to hear from him. “It was all a trick, and I fell for it like an idiot. Everything that I’ve done after we came to the Dark Kingdom was influenced by what this stupid monkey told me. His prophecy was the reason I doubted your loyalty, Cass. The same prophecy convinced me that I should let you into the Moonstone Chamber, Rapunzel. Pascal convinced me that by trying to keep you out I was betraying you, but now I see that he was wrong. I was so convinced that having faith in you would be enough to save us all from another dangerous situation, but the more I think about it now, the more I’m convinced that the price for it would be your life. I’m so sorry. I never, ever meant to put you at risk. And Cass, I’m sorry for doubting you. You did the right thing.”

“Well, I’m glad that you’re finally seeing that,” Cass mumbled. She didn’t fully forgive him, not yet anyway. It was far too early, and she really needed some alone time to really think his perspective through. But she was happy that he was at least trying. “Are you okay, Raps?” she added quietly, worried, when the Princess didn't immediately assure her boyfriend that everything was fine between them.

She couldn’t help the guilt that now started burning in her chest, weirdly intensified by the Moonstone’s magic. This whole discussion was basically about keeping Rapunzel both safe and happy, and yet none of them put much attention to making sure that she wasn’t too overwhelmed by the entire conversation.

The Princess was now hugging herself tightly, clearly trying to hold back tears.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she whispered entirely unconvincingly, not looking up from her hands. “I’m glad that we’re finally talking this out, and how much you all care about me. I really am. Just… give me a moment, alright? We can go back to this in a couple of minutes. I need some fresh air.”

And, without another word, the Princess rose from her chair and got out of the chamber, leaving everyone else behind.

Chapter Text

After Rapunzel left the chamber, the silence between the rest of the group very quickly grew awkward.

“Cass…” Eugene started somewhat hesitantly. “Maybe you should go and…”

“No,” she interrupted him firmly. All the eyes in the room focused on her, but she didn’t back down. “Raps said she needs a moment alone and some fresh air, right? Let her take a breath.”

“Hoo,” Owl chimed in, reminding her that they were supposed to talk like adults this time and she shouldn’t let Rapunzel just sulk by herself like that.

“You should know by now that forcing someone to talk when they want to be left alone doesn’t ever work out that well,” Cass said, glaring at him. “Like when Rapunzel tried to talk to me in the Great Tree and basically ordered me to shut up again since she’s going to be the Queen someday and I should just start getting used to her making awful decisions and ignoring my advice. Or after she almost killed me with the decay spell and she tried to convince me that it was my fault because she apparently had everything under control. You should know that sometimes people need time and forcing yourself on them only makes everything worse.”

“Wait, these are the things she told you when she was trying to reconcile?” Eugene asked, staring at her in disbelief.

“Yeah,” Cass shrugged. “You still think I should chase after her right now?”

“Maybe not,” he admitted hesitantly. “I guess that could end up in another argument, right?”

“And we’ve had more than enough of those lately,” Lance added seriously. “It’s better to take a break and let Rapunzel say everything she has to say the way she wants to say it when she cools down a little”

“Your friends are right, son,” King Edmund joined the conversation.

Cass almost shuddered at the sound of his voice. Up until now the Dark King was just sitting there, quietly listening to their discussion, to the point where she almost forgot about his presence entirely.

“You should give Rapunzel time to think about everything by herself,” Edmund continued. “And, if you want to… we could use that time to talk about everything, too.”

For a moment there was a tense silence in the room. Cassandra couldn’t help but wonder if Eugene finally understood that being forced into a serious conversation isn’t that fun after all.

“I… I don’t know if I’m ready,” Eugene admitted after a while.

“Well, you have some time to decide, then,” Cass said, rising from her seat at the table. She desperately needed a few minutes to stretch out in peace, too. “We’re not going to bother you, right, guys? We’ll be back soon.”

“That’s a good idea,” Lance nodded, gesturing for Pascal to jump on his hand from Eugene’s arm where Rapunzel left him. “After all, I have to think about my own grand speech in peace, too.” He winked at them. “See you, Your Highness.”

He gave Eugene a playful bow that made the newfound Prince groan painfully. Cass couldn’t help but smirk.

With that, Cassandra, Lance, Pascal, Owl and the horses exited the chamber, leaving Eugene alone with his father.

Cassandra wasn’t sure for how long she just wandered the unfamiliar grounds around the castle, lost in her thoughts. She was left alone to think for the first time since taking the Moonstone, and she still wasn’t sure how she was supposed to feel about everything that happened today.

The entire ordeal ended indefinitely better than she could expect in her wildest dreams. She managed to save Rapunzel’s life for her own poor decision making. Not only did the Moonstone not kill her in the process, but her friends actually started to listen to what she had to say for once. More than that, Rapunzel and Eugene actually apologised for treating her the way they did, and Lance even supported her decision to take the Moonstone herself. Rapunzel admitted that she shouldn’t trust Adira from the beginning. Even Owl seemed somewhat happy with Cass’ efforts to deal with the problem for once. Cassandra finally was the one to save the day, and her friends actually acknowledged that fact.

This whole situation had one more incredibly important side effect that she didn’t really have the time to think of that much when she was making her choice - she was controlling the Moonstone’s power now. Her mind wandered back to the moment she first took the Opal in her hand, how the magic seemed to freeze the very blood in her veins, transforming her in a way she had no idea how to even express with words. She thought about the black rocks reacting to her fear and anger when she confronted Rapunzel and Adira, and about the shockwave the Moonstone created to protect her, and about the lightning that erupted from it when she got annoyed, and, above all, about how her injured hand finally stopped hurting.

At last, after all those years of waiting for her moment, Cassandra finally was the hero she knew she was supposed to be.

Then why couldn't she just feel relieved and happy for once?

Even though everything went more than well so far, Cass still couldn’t let go of the weird unease that was holding her in its grip.

There was still so much that needed to be done. Despite Cassandra having some control over the Moonstone, she had no clue how to use it to clear the continent from the black rocks, like they intended from the beginning of this journey. What’s worse, she couldn’t know if her newfound powers wouldn’t hurt somebody when she became too angry or scared again, as the Opal seemed to react according to her emotions and not necessarily her will. They had no idea how to decipher that stupid Scroll that this damn traitor Demanitus gave them, or even if it would be of any help at all if they managed to read it somehow. She couldn’t be sure if people in Corona, especially her father and Royal Couple, would understand why she did what she did - and even if they understood, if they would approve of her actions. Not to mention that Zhan Tiri was possibly still floating around in her stupid ghost form, ready to cause more trouble for everyone. Cassandra still couldn’t believe that Rapunzel and the rest didn’t think they should share this little piece of information with her.

Cass took a deep breath, looking down at her body - her black rock armor, her right hand that was protected by a shining gauntlet now, no longer rotting away, and, most importantly, the shimmering Stone on her chest.

For the first time ever, she felt like she really had some control over her own life.

And for the first time, she was certain that whatever challenges awaited her down the road, she won’t be facing them alone.

When Cassandra entered the dining room again, the rest of her company were already waiting for her at the table.

The atmosphere was still pretty tense, with everyone more or less avoiding each others’ eyes, but not quite as heavy as when Rapunzel left the chamber earlier. At least no one was on the verge of tears now, and it did seem like Eugene and his father did talk about their problematic relationship, at least for a while.

“There you are,” Eugene greeted, smirking at her. “You made us wait for a while, you know. Your lack of royal blood really shows, Cassandra.”

“Forgive me then, Prince Horace,” she answered without missing a beat, taking her place at the table. Eugene snickered. “I promise it won’t happen again.”

“It better not,” he said in an overly haughty tone. Cassandra rolled her eyes.

“So, Raps, are you ready to tell us your part?” she asked, turning attention of the gathering towards the Princess.

“Yeah, I think so,” Rapunzel said softly. “Eugene already told parts of the story the way I see it, though. Of course, it all started with Gothel. You all know what happened and why, of course, but… I don’t think I can tell you how it really felt. For eighteen years, Gothel was the only person I ever remembered meeting in my entire life. She was my everything. I trusted her. I loved her. I grew up with her telling me all of those horrible stories about the outside world, about ruffians, thugs, poison ivy, quicksands, cannibals, snakes, plagues, bugs, dangerous animals and everything else… and I believed her. She convinced me that someone like me, fragile, sloppy, immature, clumsy, gullible, naive and so on would never survive in the world outside. My only safety was trusting that mother knows best and staying put in the tower. I really believed that she was caring about my safety.”

Cassandra focused her eyes on her hands. She didn’t want to look at Rapunzel or Eugene, and especially not at Owl. The brief glimpses of her earliest childhood she recalled after The House of Yesterday’s Tomorrow were more than enough to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Gothel was a manipulative, evil monster of a "mother", if it wasn't clear enough already. She could only begin to imagine how spending a full eighteen years with her as the only person you know really looked like.

“And then my world turned completely upside down in just one day,” Rapunzel continued her story, seemingly oblivious to Cassandra’s inner turmoil. “One day I was sitting in the tower, dreaming about seeing the lights, and the next day Gothel was dead and I was the Missing Princess of Corona. Of course, it was amazing to finally have a family that truly cared about me, and all those people who waited for my return all those years, but… you know it wasn’t easy for me to get used to everything. It certainly wasn’t being trapped in the tower, but it wasn’t exactly the freedom I always wanted, either. All those customs and traditions and responsibilities were really too much sometimes. I can’t thank you guys enough for being there for me and supporting me through that time. Especially you, Cass. I know that the beginning of our friendship wasn’t easy, but I truly don’t know if I would manage everything if you weren’t there to guide me.”

“Don’t mention it,” Cass murmured with an awkward smile, still avoiding her gaze. It wasn’t the right time to mention how much she couldn’t stand Rapunzel when they first met, and how much she despised her lady-in-waiting job in general. They would talk about that part, too. Eventually.

“But it’s true,” Rapunzel insisted. Cassandra could feel Owl’s meaningful stare at her. She refused to meet it. “But as you know, before I could truly get used to everything, the entire mess with the black rocks started. First my hair grew back when I touched the rocks for the first time, and then there was the entire situation with Varian…” Rapunzel's voice trailed off.

Cassandra swallowed. She knew that they all severely messed up with the kid. This entire time she was way too focused on protecting Rapunzel and Corona to truly stop and consider everything that happened, but now as she started to think of it, she knew that they weren’t blameless in Varian’s turn to villany.

She quickly pushed these feelings aside. It wasn’t the time. Maybe, after they return to Corona, they could think about actually helping the kid to get back on his feet.

“I get that my dad was truly worried for me,” Rapunzel continued after a moment of heavy silence. “He isn’t Gothel, of course, but… He still told me I’m not ready for the real world, he lied to me to keep me safe and he took away my freedom, first by prohibiting me from leaving the walls of Corona, and then by literally locking me in a tower. We never had an actual conversation about any of it, and I hope we’ll both be ready after we return home, but… The point is, I had enough of the people taking my freedom away in the name of protecting me. This journey was my first ever opportunity to be free, to make my own decisions without anyone trying to restrict me, and I kind of… lost myself in it. I thought you of all people should understand that I don’t need anyone to take care of me, Cass, especially since I know you felt trapped in the castle, too, and you were the one who took me to see the black rocks in the first place. I never meant to make you feel useless or not appreciated. I guess I was just scared of anyone telling me how to live my life again. I felt free for like the first time ever, and I was so fixated on making the best of it and chasing my destiny that I didn’t see that you were trying to keep me safe without taking my freedom away. But you are right. There were so many times when you tried to warn me about the possible danger and I didn’t listen to you. I was lucky so often that I didn’t really consider possible consequences of my choices… But I know you weren’t so lucky.” Cassandra still didn’t look in Rapunzel’s direction, but she was certain that the Princess was looking at her hand. “I am so sorry I didn’t see any of that earlier. And… thank you so much for not giving up on me.”

“I… I am sorry too, Raps,” Cassandra said quietly, finally forcing herself to meet her friend’s eyes. “I knew a lot about your life with Gothel and what your father did, and… I assume I could try to explain everything better instead of getting mad at you. I didn’t mean to make you feel like I was trying to take your freedom away. And… thank you for listening to me now, even if you didn’t understand why I did all of that at first.”

“That’s the least that I could do,” Rapunzel said, finally smiling at her again. Cass wasn’t sure why it was making her as happy as it did. “I really wish we could hug right now.”

“We’ll figure it out,” Cass promised quietly. As much as she was fond of her personal space, she never wanted to hug someone as hard as she wanted to hug her best friend right now. “So, Raps, do you have something more to add now, or can we let Lance have his big, emotional speech?” she added somewhat awkwardly, desperately trying to push down the uncomfortable longing caused by not being able to touch Rapunzel at the moment.

“Well, I just wanted to add that… Eugene, I want you to know that I love you so much and I am so grateful that you tried to honor my choices, even if they were getting us in trouble, but… I need a moment to think about everything. I mean, about how you questioned Cass and made me question her, too, and how you didn’t tell me what the Moonstone did to your mom. We’ll talk about all of it later, okay? I just need some time.”

“I understand, Sunshine,” Eugene assured her gently. “I love you, too. Take all the time you need.”

“Thank you,” Rapunzel said quietly. Cassandra wasn’t sure what was this weird mix of emotions that this conversation caused in her, but she decided not to dwell on it for too long. “So, Lance, I think it’s your turn to speak now, right?” the Princess added, smiling at him encouragingly.

“There’s not that much to say, really,” Lance said, shrugging. “You know me, guys. Worrying about safety and responsibility never was my strongest suit. I went on this whole journey mainly because I wanted to spend time in the company of only honest friends I’ve ever had, and because going on adventures is more interesting than having a normal life as a good citizen of Corona. Even better that they were mostly lawful adventures this time around. I get that you’re the boss here, Princess, so I didn’t want to get in the way of any disagreements you had with Cass for the most part, even though the tension between you two was getting unbearable at times. But even I couldn’t help but notice that Cass is the only person taking our safety seriously, and she’s also the most responsible of all of us. So when we overheard how you were talking with Eugene about this so-called prophecy, I started to get really annoyed. You had no reason to doubt her loyalty like that, and you know it. And then, when Adira told you she was going to risk your life in the name of getting rid of the Moonstone this entire time and you just went along with it, I could practically see the decision on Cass’ face. I figured that if I would have to choose which one of you will make a more informed, responsible choice, it would be Cass for sure, so I didn’t do anything to stop her. It looks like I was right. That’s basically it.”

“Thanks, Lance,” Cassandra said, smiling at him. It was nice to know that at least someone trusted her judgement after all.

“You’re welcome,” he said, winking at her. “And Eugene, we will have a one on one talk about trusting suspicious ancient monkeys over people who did nothing but had all our backs for literal years.”

“It looks like everyone is going to give me a hard time because of it, huh?” Eugene mumbled. “I guess I deserve it.”

Cass tried to hold back a smirk. She was glad he was aware of what he did.

“Well, I suppose I am the only person who hasn't had a chance to talk yet,” King Edmund chimed in seriously.

Cassandra looked at him warily. Even though he turned out to be Eugene’s father and they all silently decided to trust him enough to take part in their meeting, she couldn’t just forget that just hours before he was trying to kill them all with an axe. She didn’t feel exactly comfortable having this conversation with him.

“Of course, Your Majesty,” Rapunzel nodded.

“As you all know by now, our family was protecting the Moonstone from anyone who would want to possess its limitless power for many centuries,” the King began his tale. “You are well aware that my attempt at destroying the Opal all those years ago ended in the death of my wife and destruction of my Kingdom. You have to understand why I was so determined not to let anyone else get close to the Moonstone ever again, even if it meant ending innocent lives caught in the middle. When I realized that my long lost son is finally back home, I took it as a sign that it was time to end this nightmare once and for all. Neutralizing the Stone’s threat was that much more urgent now, since Rapunzel was convinced that taking the Moonstone is her destiny, and I didn’t want my son to lose the love of his life the same way I lost mine. At first, Horace went along with my plan, but then he turned against me. It was certainly foolish of me to let him change my mind so easily. He was so deeply convinced that Rapunzel is able to put an end to all of this that I couldn’t help but believe him. Now I understand that perhaps he was right. Perhaps if you would take the Moonstone, the danger would be finally over. And perhaps your life would be the price to pay for the peace. I am glad that your friend stopped you from sacrificing yourself, Rapunzel. I wouldn’t forgive myself if I let you die the same way my wife did.”

Cassandra couldn’t help but smile a little hearing it. She didn’t regret or doubt her choice even for a moment, but hearing the Dark King himself admitting she did the right thing was a reassurance she didn’t even know she wanted.

“As for you, Cassandra, I still don’t know why the Moonstone didn’t kill you like it did so many others before,” Edmund addressed her directly. She wasn’t sure what to make of his tone. “However, I suppose that out of all the countless people who ever seeked to control it, you are the most worthy of wielding its power. You didn’t just wish to take this dangerous magic for yourself, but you were willing to risk your life to save your friend. That is admirable loyalty. After everything I heard, I trust that you are the most fitting person to control the Opal. For whatever reason, it chose you, and now it’s your role to learn how to handle it. It most certainly won’t be an easy task. However, I do believe that you are strong-willed and responsible enough, even despite your young age. I am certain that this time, your friends will be there to help you.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty,” Cassandra nodded, no longer trying to conceal her smile.

“Horace and I had a chance to talk about everything for a while,” the Dark King added, considerably saddened. “I agreed to give him space to think about what happened and what he wants. I respect his choice to leave the Dark Kingdom with you. When and if he will be ready to forgive me, or if you ever need any sort of help, I’ll be here for him, and for the rest of you. Just send me a message. My crows will follow you. If they ever lose you from the sight again, perhaps your friend will be willing to help us, too,” he turned to Cass again.

“Hoo,” Owl chimed in, warning her not to ruin that moment with petty teasing.

Cass rolled her eyes. She was still angry at Eugene, of course, but Owl really should know better than suspect that she of all people would want to stand between him and a chance at a good relationship with his newfound father.

“We will be happy to help,” she assured them.

“Now, I know you all had a very long day,” King Edmund said, standing from his chair. “Would you mind spending the night in the castle before you start to plan your way back home?”

“I guess we really could use some rest,” Rapunzel admitted, smiling at him. Then, as if she remembered something, she turned to Cassandra. “What do you think about that, Cass?”

Cass smiled more brightly than she did in a very long time.

“I think I’d like that.”